Fatherland
by JoJo1
Summary: In the future, mutants are outlaws. And it's open season.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

Feedback: You have to ask?  
Disclaimer: Oh, yeah. These people are all mine. Yeah, right.  
Archive: WRFA and Mutual Admiration are free to archive it without asking, anyone else: ask first.  
Setting: Post-Registration  
Comment: Inspired partly by the movie Bladerunner. Oh, and this is an AU fic before you ask but I can't tell in what way without ruining the fic...you just have to read...  
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A man was standing in his office in one of the top floors of one of the tallest skyscrapers in  
New York City, looking out over the city. The city's a warzone, like much of  
the rest of the United States and has been so on and off for the last ten years. Hard to  
imagine at times that it's only been ten years since Magneto tried to mutate the world  
leaders. His plan was foiled, thank God, but the irony is that the plan backfired on him. His,  
admittably laudable, goal was to unite mutants and ordinary humans. By wrong means certainly but  
the goal itself he would have agreed to once. But the plan couldn't have failed more  
spectalurarily.  
  
Ordinary humans had been mindful of mutants for some time back then, and  
even feared them. When what had really happened on the Statue of Libery that night had leaked  
out, the fear and mindfulness quickly turned to anger and hate. Even towards the so-called  
X-men, despite that they were the ones that had averted the danger. No, not  
despite. Because they were the ones. They showed quite clearly that their powers could be  
deadly. What if they too were to act against humanity? And the population at large didn't  
take kindly to people, mutants or otherwise, taking the law in their own hands.  
  
So, the law that required that mutants were forced to be registered as such  
was passed quickly. It didn't stay that way for very long however. Professor Xavier and  
his students used every opportunity they could find to fight for a law they found being  
unconstitutional not to mention morally wrong. They only succeeded in taking it beyond  
registration though. 3 years later mutants had no rights under the law. It was no crime to kill a  
mutant. In fact, rather the reverse. If you killed a mutant you would get the  
equivalent of a years salary put into your bank-account with a "Thank you" note from the  
government attached. It wasn't even called killing, everything to separate the mutants from  
humans. It was called retirement. The police-departments in every major city even had  
special units specifically put together to fight mutants.  
  
When the man had come that far in his thoughts, he noticed some thunder  
across the town close to central park. Considering that it was a cloud free day he assumed  
that it was the mutant known as Storm being taken care of.  
  
True enough. Only a minute later he got a phonecall from one of his  
subordinates. "Ororo Munroe has been taken care of. Do you want her dead or should we  
attempt the transforming-process?"  
"Dead. She's too dangerous and to strong-willed to be transformed, Mr Creed."  
"Consider it done." and the phone hangs up.  
  
Mr Creed, the man thought. Formerly known as Sabretooth. The only one of Magnetos brotherhood still alive,   
and only because he was found to be useful. The only mutants that were free to live were the ones that could   
be used to track down other mutants. The rest got retired on sight or forced to live in shelterd areas. Professor   
Xavier's former school was one of those areas. The school is no more but a large concrete-building surrounded by   
electrical fences and devices designed to remove mutant powers was now the living area of mutants that either had   
harmless powers or were due for the transformation process.  
  
It's nothing Xavier or his students could do anything about either. Xavier himself is dead. He was one of  
the first ones to get executed together with Jean Grey and Elisabeth Braddock. Telepaths are too dangerous  
to live. The men known as Cyclops and Gambit died in their attempts to rescue them. And now, with Storm dead,   
that leaves only two remaining members of the X-men. The Wolverine and Rogue. Rumours has it that they are leading two   
different resistance-teams but nothing that has been proved yet. If it's true, they need to be taken care of. The teams they   
might be leading is most likely former students of Xavier's and wants revenge.  
  
"Excuse me, Sir"  
The inter-com. "Yes?"  
"Officers Creed and Rasputin here to see you."  
"Let them in."  
  
"Creed and Rasputin. I take it that Storm's dead now?"  
"Positive sir. Her body's being taken downtown to the crematory as we speak."  
"Excellent. Now, I have another appointment for you. Creed, your mission is to hunt down the Wolverine and if possible bring him to   
the transformation facility. If the latter is found to be undoable he is due for retirement."  
"On my way sir."  
"And you Rasputin. Same object but different subject. Find me Rogue."  
"As you command, sir."  
  
After the officers has left, the man once again looks out through the window pondering if they will succeed.  
When he notices the houses burning and the camp just two blocks from where he is, the camp that would have made  
Hitler proud he feels ashamed. Ashamed over what he has become. He considers denying it all but can't help  
but asking himself the nagging questions.  
  
"Did I choose something I could regret? Did I do something I should regret?"  
He immediately regrets the questions because deep down he knows that the answer is yes.  
  
"Is this the place I used to call Fatherland?" Yes, but it's my doing that  
it's been twisted. Not Magnetos. Not Xaviers. Not the X-men. My fault. It's my fault that America has become  
the twisted image of nazi-germany. And I'm too much a coward to try to change things. I would just be branded  
"mutie-friend" and executed without a trial.  
  
With that, Robert Kelly leaves his office for the day knowing that Wolverine  
and Rogue soon will be either his agents or dead. The thought does nothing to alleviate his guilty conscience. 


	2. Chapter 2

Robert Kelly wearily made his way homewards, passing countless of   
security zones on his way. Not really countless but it feels that   
way when you have to verify the electronic id-card against how  
your fingerprint, DNA-signature, the look of your iris and/or the   
makeup of your blood is every time you move from one zone to the other.   
3 zones can then be a nightmare. More zones then that and  
we're speaking of the circle of hell Dante forgot to write about.   
Still worse if you happened to be known to have a certain political power.   
To the security forces that is. The average Joe Public isn't aware of how   
much power he really has. For people like that though, the security procedures are  
even more thourough if such a thing could be imagined. Not many people were in   
category 5, that is people with the most sensitive knowledge and thus with the   
necessity of the utmost in security, but Robert Kelly was one of the very few. There's   
almost only people high up in the ranks of the military there and a couple of genetic   
specialists. In New York, there were only five people all in all. Robert Kelly, Moira McTaggert,   
Paul Derret, Valeri Cooper and Henry Gyrich. All involved in fighting the mutant menace in one   
way or the other.   
  
"A fight we're losing" Robert thought to himself. And not because the   
mutants were stronger. Sure, their powers could be real intimidating and lethal but modern   
technology could come up with defenses against them all and had done just that as well. It's   
just that...how do you fight against nature? For every mutant that got terminated at least one or two   
new were born or their powers manifested themself. All implications of mutant registration and termination   
hadn't been thouroughly thought through back when the laws were passed, Robert admitted. In hindsight they   
should have. It's blatantantly obvious when you come to think about it and are not just letting your   
fear and paranoia rule the process of creating new laws. The futility of a new sort of "final solution"   
is just mind numbing. You could just as well try to empty the pacific from water by drinking it up.  
  
Still, now ten years later and we're still trying. You'd think that people would have noticed by now that  
the numbers of mutants aren't decreasing. But no. There's at least some ten retirements a day in New York  
only and that figure has been pretty constant since the law was passed.  
  
"Sigh. Even if I dared to try to remove those laws again, I don't have the strength anymore. I'm not  
young and the last ten years has aged me more than that. I'm too old for this." With a resigned  
sigh he got out of the car and climbed the stairs to his apartment. The apartment that's his lifeline  
together with his wife and 14-year old daughter, Sharon and Michelle. The job of being "official mutant hunter"  
is draining and without some semblence of normalcy at home he would have been six feet under already. But he's always   
filled with such a shame whenever he comes home and sees them. Because he's constantly lying to them over what he does   
for a living. The Senator title is long since lostand he has managed to convince them that he got tired of life in the   
politics and is now just happyhaving an ordinary job, Everything to keep up the facade that he's   
not directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people, mutants and ordinary people getting caught   
in the crossfire or were mistaken for being a mutant.  
  
But today the apartment is empty. Sharon and Michelle was to do something downtown but he'd be damned if  
he could remember what. But an evening with the apartment all to himself was rather pleasant, as long  
as he knows it's just temporary. This, he decided, would be an evening just watching TV. As long  
as nothing cuts of the power with happened with monotonous regularity. The news barely mentioned the  
demise of Storm. The general public as well as the reporters had become jaded. The news of yet  
another mutant retirement wasn't really news anymore. It was expected so in most cases the media  
didn't even bother to report it. Only when a high-profile one such as Storm, Cable, Beast or  
Shadowcat were retired it was mentioned and then just barely with a passing comment between the  
sport results and the weather. Some oldish movie was shown afterwards. Certainly not the best movie ever made but a good way   
to wind down from work. It worked excellently because he had dozed of before the first commercial.  
  
Suddenly, he was woken up by the phone. Groggily he rose to answer, "Robert Kelly"  
"Oh, thank God you were home Robert."  
"Sharon? What's wrong?"  
"Come down to the police-station immediately. I...I can't tell you over the phone."  
"On my way."  
  
Thirty minutes later he had managed to get to the police-station and found where in that place  
Sharon was. She was red-eyed from crying and gave him a massive hug before starting to crying  
again.  
  
"Sharon? What's wrong? Where's Michelle?"  
"She...she...she's down in the morgue. She was retired an hour ago."  
"What!!? She's not a mutant."  
  
"Sure she was Mr Kelly."  
"And who are you?"  
"One of the police-men that was sent to that resturant your daughter so kindly lit on fire. Well,one mutie less to cause trouble. Which I'm   
sure you approve of."  
"What the hell are you talking about? It's my daughter that's dead!"  
"Not dead. Retired. One heck of a difference, don't you agree boss?"  
"Boss?"  
"Sure. I'm part of the Mutanthunter division. You're the highest ranking officer there."  
"Robert? What's he talkin' about?"  
"Nothing."  
"Oh, so Mrs Kelly ddidn't know. Me and my big mouth."  
"If my husband won't tell me, why won't you?"  
"Sure maam. I'm pretty sure you've got the gist of it already. Yah see, your husband here is the man that's in charge of the policemen responsible   
for retiring mutants."  
  
Realization dawned upon Sharon Kelly and threw herself against her husband, kicking and hitting him.  
"You murderer! You killed our daughter!" Robert Kelly didn't do much to defend himself, he merely tried  
to avoid being hit too hard. The police man managed to drag Mrs kelly away from him.  
  
"Robert" she pleads, "please tell me this man's lying."  
Now that the truth already had been spilt, Mr Kelly found that he couldn't look his wife in the eyes and  
realizing that he was silently admitting to his guilt. Mrs Kelly at that first seems unnaturally calm,  
just looking him in the eye asking "Where do you have your swastika Robert?" then she suddenly gets  
frantic and yells "You'll burn in hell for this you bastard!" before running away in blind fury! 


	3. Chapter 3

Robert Kelly tried to run after his wife, but was stopped by the police man.  
"Let her go."  
"She's my wife damn you!"  
"Yes, and your daughter is down in the morgue after having been retired as a  
mutant. I know I don't need to tell you what can happen to people thought of as being  
mutie-lovers. Remember Kenneth Irons just a year ago."  
  
As much as it pains Kelly to admit it, he knows the officer is right. Irons  
had been a promising district attorney that went, stupidly enough, public with his  
opinion that even mutants should have the right for a fair trial. He wasn't  
pro-mutant by any means - just someone that held the banner of human rights high. One  
night his car exploded when he started it. No one knows exactly who turned his car  
into a bomb but the general consensus is that it was the "Friendship of  
Humanity". And the newspapers had not condemned the act. Rather, they had aired the opinion  
that whoever did it deserved a medal for acting in the nations best interest.  
  
So, he has to keep silent if he wants to keep his life. And Sharons. The  
latter one's the most important, he thinks, even if she hates my guts now. At least she's  
alive. That's more than Michelle is, and Michelle won't even get a burial. Another  
right the mutants don't have anymore. After retirement, their bodies just gets  
cremated. He doesn't know how it works in a crematory so what happens with the ashes  
he doesn't know and doesn't care. All he knows is that any proven mutant don't get a  
grave where the relatives and friends could go to mourn their loved ones. The idea is  
that you're not supposed to mourn retirements - you're supposed to celebrate. In the  
beginning the city even paid for fireworks to be used the same evening a retirement  
took place but that became too annoying and expensive in the end. Every night looked like  
some perversion of the fourth of July. So, now it's settled with just a large display at  
Times Square. A display that shows the number of retirements up until now. A number that  
is startingly high and just keeps getting higher. It's something obscene with  
flaunting deaths, even if they go under another name, that publicly.  
  
With that thought, Kelly leaves the police station heading for home and  
dreading the fight he knows he's gonna have if Sharon has gone home too.  
  
Meanwhile, somewhere else  
  
"You know Storm was 'retired' later today?" It wasn't much of a question, more of a statement  
and with a lot of venom in the voice, especially when it spit out the word 'retirement'.  
"Yeah, I saw it. On the news and I've also noticed that the number of  
'retirements' are slowly increasing. The display has increased by 20 since yesterday."  
"You okay?"  
"As okay as one can be all things considered. Storm's dead and many of my team are gone as  
well. My team's not up to much fighting anymore I'm afraid."  
"Not much? How much is that?"  
"The other people in the team are not fighters so we have to fight in other  
means. We found this new guy about a week ago, calls himself Cypher, that's something of a  
computer wizard. We're planning to use him to hack into the city's mainframes to see what we  
can find."  
"Good, good."  
"What about you and your team?"  
"You know me. I'm always okay. And the team's holding up surprisingly well considering that  
Storm was on my team. In fact, we have something planned but you know I can't tell you what  
in case something goes wrong."  
"I know."  
"And we found out something else too."  
"Yeah, what's that?"  
"Creed and Rasputin has been sent out to find us. You can take care of  
Rasputin if he finds you can't you?"  
"Yeah." At that, she stops. "Excuse me for a while." She listens intently  
before continuing. "Some news. Cypher's into the police mainframe and managed to  
eaves-drop on a conversation between Kelly and a 'hunter'. Turns out Kelly's daughter  
was a mutant and got retired today."  
"Wonder if that's good or bad. Might be a way of taking advantage of it perhaps."  
"Perhaps."  
  
Silence reigns for a while when two old friends and former lovers are  
reluctant to leave but know they have to. Wouldn't do them no good if the leaders of both  
resistance teams would be 'retired' the same day.  
  
"You know", she says, "one of these days we should try to kill the leaders  
of this tyranny state. Kelly, Gyrich, McTaggert. Those people."  
"What would that accomplish? There are only others too willing to step into their place."  
"True. But it would show that we do not intend to just be their prey. And if I have to die,  
I'd rather die fighting for what I believe in instead of just being defensive most of the time."  
"Good point. But you know that if we do that, we're as good as dead."  
"We already are dead, Logan. Our bodies just don't know it yet."  
"Yeah, guess you're right. Take care Marie." he says, giving her a big hug before they head  
their separate ways. Each one dreading the thought that they may never see  
eachother again. 


	4. Chapter 4

Logan was in a really pissy mood. Not all that uncommon if truth to be told  
but now he's in a pissier mood than usual. Heaven have pity on the poor  
souls that, in a fit of stupidity, might try to get in his way now.  
  
Life had never been easy on him. First thing he remembers was waking  
up in the snow somewhere in Canada, almost 30 years ago by now, with  
only small glimpses of what his life might have been before that.  
Since then things have mostly gone downhill. First, living the  
life day by day, fighting in fightbars to make enough money to get food,  
cigars, beer and petrol for the old beaten up camper. Then, fifteen years  
of that kind of life later, he accidently meets Marie when she was on  
the run. They both soon became full members of the mutant band called  
the X-men. They also became a couple rather fast and shared a bedroom  
in the Westchester mansion that served as the X-mens headquarters just  
three months after they had met. The first real relationship they both  
had been in and neither wanted it to end.  
  
But reality wanted something else. One of X-mens ongoing missions,  
the most important one, was trying to keep humanity from shunning and  
outlawing people born with what's known as the X-factor. The odd genetic change  
that makes certain people born differently and in most cases more  
powerful. That mission was a complete and utter failure. Soon, mutants of  
all kinds were fair game for everyone to kill. Most of the X-men have fallen  
and are now long since dead and gone. The mansion's been replaced with  
a "transformation facility". A fancier way of saying "brainwashing" and  
"programming". Mutants particularily suited for tracking down and "retiring"  
other mutants were brought there to be "converted". The only two remaining  
X-mens were Logan and Marie, hiding out in separate places across New York  
City. Not out of free will but of necessity. They're the ones with the  
most experience and fighting-skills and they just couldn't take the risk  
that they both might be "retired" at the same time.  
  
And today one of Logans dearest friends had gone down. Ororo Munroe.  
By that bastard Creed, no doubt. All of that combined into making  
Logan the epitome of rage contained in one body. A body that was  
just itching to kill something. To get some of all that rage out.  
But he also knew he couldn't take that risk. Not now. First,  
he had to get back to his and his teams hideout. The plan they've  
been perfecting for some time needs to be complete and carried out  
before he can allow the grim reaper to draw his number.  
  
So he chooses stealth over violence. Violence is for another day.  
Not today. He might be hard to kill but to tempt death or "retirement"  
as it's called where mutants are concerned is just not an option for  
the time being, however tempting it could be just to call it quits.  
But there's much more at stake than his own life and needs. And whatever  
you can call Logan, selfish or coward are not amongst those things.  
Not quitter either so he had never really considered the calling it  
quits idea. Just something he couldn't avoid thinking of when he  
was feeling downright depressed over the state of affairs.  
Who was it that said "Something's rotten in the state of Denmark"?  
He had no idea but he all too well knew what was rotten in the state  
of New York. And the United States at large for that matter. And he  
didn't like it one bit. He hated it with every fibre of his soul  
and he was determined to change things, but he knew that he and  
his friends most likely couldn't change everything. They could  
at most hope for turning the tides somewhat so a change might,  
in time, come.  
  
That was when Logan noticed a familiar scent. He had been too caught  
up in his own thoughts so he got caught a little of guard and got  
promptly hit by a large tree. "Not again" he thought, feeling the  
odd sense of Deja Vu. He didn't get knocked out this time though,  
he wasn't that much surprised this time.  
  
"Long time no see Creed. Not long enough though." he said along with  
the familiar sound of *snikt* when he released his claws.  
"Cut the smalltalk, runt. You won't walk away alive this time."  
"Oh, really. The ones that gets retired tonight is you, you traitor."  
  
Both Creed and Logan are extraordinary fighters, with healing-factors  
to boot. Neither is easy to kill, for ordinary people or other mutants.  
The two men are rather even-matched. Creeds greater strength could  
have given him a slight edge if it hadn't been for the extended  
reach Logans claws gave him not to mention Logans greater intellect.  
  
The fight still raged back and forth for many minutes, and Logan noticed  
that they were attracting an audience. Creed was known to be one of  
the official mutie-hunters so he was safe if he proved to be the winner.  
Logan however would have to face a hostile crowd if he killed Creed.  
"Shit! This is not going well" Logan cursed to himself. Neither one  
of the fighters had pulled their punches in anyway but the onlooking  
crowd gave Logan a new incentive. He had to finish this quickly  
before the crowd became too large so he could try to vanish quickly.  
  
"Creed!" he yelled at the larger man, "Consider your immunity to retirement  
being revoked!" he said and lunged at the man. The claws of his right hand  
went into the abdomen of Creed while he at the same time used the left  
hands claws to sever Creeds head from the rest of the body, knowing that  
that's the only real option of killing people with healing factors.  
  
Logan quickly withdrew his claws and Creeds body slumped to the ground.  
The onlooking crowd was stunned by the death of the supposedly invulnerable  
mutant-hunter which Logan took advantage of and hastily made his  
disappearance. 


	5. Chapter 5

Robert Kelly was furious. Really, really furious. Nothing was going his way  
and he was seriously beginning to think he'd been born under a bad star or something.  
First he loses his beloved daughter, thanks to laws that he himself had  
caused to come into effect. That in itself is enough to drive a man over the edge  
and to make matters worse, his wife since 30 years back had taken the first flight  
back home to Minneapolis when she had found exactly how much blood he had on his  
hands. All the walls seemed to be crumbling down around him and there was  
seemingly nothing he could do about it. Except bury himself in work to get  
his mind of it.  
  
Only problem with that particular strategy is that work leads to another set  
of problems, frustrations and anger. The death of Victor Creed is one.  
His best agent, cut to pieces. Sure - Rasputin, Worthington, Callisto,  
Cassidy, Allerdyce and the rest are good in their own rights but none with  
Creeds uncanny capability of finding and besting his prey. But they could  
be better if they hadn't been forced through the transformation process,  
which kills some of the subjects initiative capability. They loses some  
of their flexibility. Creed hadn't gone through that. All that had to be  
done to make him a mutant hunter was to play on that bloodlust of his.  
An opportunity to kill and maim was all the incentive he had needed.  
He was the best one he had had. Apparently, not good enough. At least not  
when there's someone even better. Both Creed and he himself had seriously  
underestimated the Wolverine which proved to be fatal. To Creed. To someone or   
something else too? Only time will tell.  
  
And what if they had underestimated Rogue as well? Would he lose yet another  
agent? And if Creed couldn't retire the Wolverine, who could? Some with  
magnetic powers would have been the obvious choice but Magneto and Polaris  
had both been retired so that option was closed.  
  
He couldn't see a way out of that dilemma.  
  
Meanwhile, somewhere else  
  
Marie couldn't help but wonder. Wonder if she'd been too cocky and  
self-confident when she said she'd have no problem handling Rasputin.  
Or was she just trying to reassure Logan? She wasn't sure herself  
but knew that even if she could handle Rasputin it would be a close  
call. Very close call. After all these years, she wasn't the same  
Marie that hid away in Logans camper. She had acquired some more  
powers when she had to defend herself against other mutants and  
has become quite good at some martial arts as well, even if she  
knows that some people wouldn't have a problem trashing her in a  
competition. But life in New York isn't a competition. And fighting  
for your life makes that crystal clear. It also makes it clear that  
you have to fight dirty to stay alive. All things combined,  
she has become a efficient killing machine if she needs to be.  
She prefers not to be that though, which is why she's leading the team that  
relies more on stealth than strength. In fact, she could hardly sleep for  
a whole week the first time she had to kill. The guilt over that still  
haunts her at times and at those times, the only thing on her mind is  
that it should have been her.  
  
But Rasputins though too. A guy that can turn himself into steel  
gotta be. Hard to knock out if nothing else. And he's not a dummy.  
Good thing he's not too good at tracking people down. That's  
Creeds and Logans area of expertise. So she's probably safe for tonight.  
Good thing too. Because she's way too exhausted to put up a good fight.  
In the end, it turned out that probably was not true. She was safe  
for the night and made it back to her safe (relatively speaking)  
haven, where Hank, Bobby, Cypher and her other partners already  
were.  
  
Later the same day, back at Kellys office  
  
Kelly was still considering his dilemma, but no nearer to a perfect  
solution to it. Only a solution involving several hunters, cornering  
Wolverine and eventually bringing him down. A solution he wasn't at  
all happy with since it could involve several hunters being killed  
or permanently disabled.  
  
He was pacing back and forth in his office while thinking it over when  
the intercom beeped.  
  
"Yes?"  
"Two men here to see you Mr Kelly."  
"Who? I'm not expecting anyone."  
"A Mr Trask and a Mr Shaw."  
"I don't recognize those names but send them in anyway. I need some distraction here."  
"Very well Sir."  
  
"Afternoon, Gentlemen. I don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting you  
before so I'll get right to the point here. To what do I owe this pleasure?"  
"We have a proposal for you, Mr Kelly."  
"Which involves?"  
"A permanent solution to the mutant menace. A more, shall we say, elegant  
and efficiant solution than those mutant hunters you employ."  
"I must say you got my attention there."  
"I thought it would. Our Sentinels will deal with those annoying rebels and  
outlaws in a matter of weeks." 


	6. Chapter 6

Kelly doesn't know what to make of that. "Okay, I bite Mr Trask. What on Earth is a Sentinel?"  
"Consider it a search and destroy robot, to put it simple."  
"And why would that be better than our current approach?"  
"It's much harder to kill for starters and if I'm not wrong you just lost your best hunter?"  
"Yes. But you said for starters. What more?"  
"Well, it's got a mutant-tracker built in. Xavier had one too when he was alive but he  
used it for other purposes. When a mutant's found the Sentinel can use a variety  
of different state-of-the-art weapons to retire said mutant. It also has a very  
complex strategy-software that improves over time to predict how the mutant  
might defend itself."  
"And how does this thing look like?"  
"Why?"  
"Well, if it's an obvious looking robot I think the mutants might figure something's  
up since we have none walking the streets of New York now."  
"True. As for looks, there are two models. One giant-sized that was designed to  
defend important buildings against mutant attacks. Giant-sized means that it can  
be seen across New York, practically."  
"That won't do. Not in a crowded city."  
"Agreed. Which is why we have Sentinel MK-II, which is indistinguishable from a  
human. More so than the late Creed or Beast for instance. But still as good as MK-I."  
"Ah, that's better. But why come to me with this? If you want me to use these  
things in New York, fine by me but it's really the mayor that decides that. Not me."  
"Well, yes. But you are the one that can tell us if it's feasible to go ahead."  
"How's that?"  
"You see, we need certain raw materials to build the MK-II model."  
"And I can tell you that because?"  
"Because the raw material is humans, mutants preferably. You do have internment  
camps with suitable subjects I presume?"  
"Let me see if I've got this straight.You want some of the mutants living as  
prisoners to do what? I thought you said they were robots?"  
"Well, MK-II is more of a cyborg really. A human body, enhanced with all kinds  
of things. Much like Wolverine really but on a much larger scale. That's why they so easily  
pass as human, because in essence they still are. But the mutant must not be one  
like Beast or Worthington. It must be one that does not have some physical  
deformity."  
"And why would one of those obey orders?"  
"They really have no choice. Most of their underlying emotions have been  
removed and one of the devices built into them automatically triggers a reflex to kill  
humans when they are close by one."  
"A tempting offer but what do you get out of it?"  
"Two things. One. The mutants gets retired, making the city safe again. And two,  
Mr Shaw and I are buisnessmen. We don't plan on giving them to the city. We  
intend to sell them. For a most reasonable price, I assure you."  
"Then gentlemen, let me take this up with the mayor and get back to you."  
"Sounds fine, Mr Kelly." they say, and leaves the office.  
  
Kelly himself is not as sure of it. Letting murderous killing machines out on  
the streets of New York? What if one of them starts to malfunction, killing ordinary humans  
instead? But Robert Kelly knows that in reality he has no choice. The mayor has been on  
his back for quite some time now, demanding to see some results. And not just some Storm  
or Jubilation Lee getting retired. No, more noticable results. Results that's  
showing that the mutant population is decreasing. And a bunch of mutant hunters  
just doesn't seem to cut it. He has his doubts that a battle squadron of Sentinel  
robots would either but the mayor is a stubborn man. He most assuredly will back this  
project if it has even one very slim chance of making a difference.  
  
And to be honest, letting loose a murderous robot or a murderous Victor Creed -  
is there really a difference? Both can cause quite a lot of damage if not  
controlled properly. Okay, not Creed anymore but the other hunters can too and have at  
times. That's why there's no Statue of Liberty any more. It got completely wrecked in  
the fight between Sabra and Chamber.   
  
No, he really has no choice. The Sentinels will be built he's sure. The  
decision is really out of his hands, he thinks before heading home.  
  
Meanwhile, elsewhere  
  
"Rogue? I think you want to hear this."  
"Hank? Couldn't it wait until tomorrow? I need to sleep."  
"I understand, but this is too important."  
"Okay, okay. Spill it."  
"We got word from Shaw. Trask has talked to Kelly."  
"And? We knew that was going to happen sooner or later."  
"Yes, but by then we didn't know what Trask had up his sleeve."  
"Which is?"  
"You watched Terminator as a kid, didn't you?"  
"Sure."  
"Then you know. Except that we will face a whole horde of them."  
"You sure? Or rather, is Shaw sure?"  
"As sure as one can be. Whatever you can say about Kelly, he's not stupid. He  
will realise the potential of killer robots."  
"Shit!"  
"You can say that again."  
"Get hold of Logan! He and his team will need to know this. They have something  
planned. I don't know what but this might change everything!"  
"How am I supposed to get hold of him without Emma here?"  
"Shit again! Completely forgot about that. When will she be back?"  
"In two or three days given that she doesn't run into a hunter somewhere. If  
she does, we're toast." 


	7. Chapter 7

"Hank, have you any idea of where Logan's team's hiding?"  
"Not for certain, no. But I think I've figured out the general area by things he and some of his  
teammember has said, without realising that they might have given their hideout away. Why?"  
"I need to see him! Those robots might destroy everything we've worked to accomplish."  
"Without much success."  
"True and it will be less still if those robots are on the loose. That's why I  
need to go and see him."  
"That's..." He stumbled on the words. "That's not wise."   
  
If someone had ever wanted to express himself more verbally or cursing it was Hank McCoy at this   
very moment. But for the time being he couldn't find the words.   
  
"You don't have to tell me that Hank. I know it's not. But it's not wise to let them walk into a trap either.   
One way or the other we have to warn them and I can't think of another way than finding them."  
"Waiting for Emma?"  
"Yes, but by then it could be too late. We really could use another telepath but I don't  
know if there's anyone more still alive. But even if there were, it doesn't help us now.  
Are you gonna tell me where you think Logan may be or not?"  
"Fine, I give up. But YOU are not going because you're too valuable to risk."  
"Who then?"  
"Well, anybody really. Me, Sarah, Nathan or"  
"You misunderstood me Hank. Who beside me could go? I'm the only one here that can pass as human."  
  
Hank considered that for a few moments before nodding his head, both in agreement  
and in defeat. He knew she was right. She was the only one that could, for the  
most part, walk anonymously in the city. Some people would recognize her but the  
averegage person on the street wouldn't know she was a mutant. He himself  
wouldn't be able to walk more than a few blocks before being lynched.   
  
"Just be careful okay?"  
"Alway am."  
  
Hank had to laugh at that. "Since when? But since you're such a stubborn woman  
and Logan needs to know this, I have to give up. They're in the sewers, somewhere just outside  
Central Park."  
"Thanks Hank. And I promise to be careful. More careful than usual anyway."  
"Somehow that's not very reassuring."  
  
Marie left their little hideout, heading for Central Park. Despite her brave  
words to Hank just a couple of minutes ago, she was almost trembling with fear. She's  
normally very brave which had given her a reputation of looking for trouble back when she had  
first met Xavier, Hank and the others. A reputation she doesn't live up to  
anymore but Hank just can't stop teasing her about it, only halfway in jest. But being  
brave is one thing, being stupid something else. She can face danger as well as  
anyone, probably even better too, but that doesn't mean she wants to if it in any way  
can be avoided. Rasputin's still out there, looking for her. He's probably the biggest danger  
to her well-being for the time being but theres always the resident psychos, self-appointed  
hunters, robbers, drug-addicts and a thousand other dangers. Still, you can't always avoid the dangers   
which she knows all too well after all these years.  
  
Logan's hideout wasn't easy to find, she had to admit even when you knows the approximate location.  
No wonder there has been so few retirements of his team. They knew how to hide and hide well. She  
hadn't done as good in that regard which still made her feel guilty. She hadn't been as good as Logan to hammer   
in just how dangerous the situation and the hunters were to every member which had led to the younger ones being too   
damn reckless and got killed because of it. Too many of them. But that's the past. Now is now and now is where she's doing   
whatever she can to avoid more of the downtrodden mutants to get murdered. Murdered by the state but still murdered.  
As far as Marie was concerned, murder was murder no matter what it was called. Murder, retirement or execution. To call it   
retirement or execution under certain circumstances was only to alleviate the consciences of the guilty parties.   
  
"What the hell are you doing here Marie??"  
"Coming with a warning."  
"Warning against what?"  
"I know you're soon about to set some sort of plan into action. I don't know what but you might come across a new type of resistance   
from Kelly's goons."  
"Will you get to the point already?"  
"Robots. Specifically designed to track down and retire mutants. I would assume they'll be much harder to kill than that overgrown cat that's   
hunting you,"  
"Hunted. He's dead. Robots, eh? How'd you know that?"  
"A spy working at the corporation that's gonna sell em' to Kelly."  
"Private company? Can only be Trask then."  
"You got it."  
"Hm, this sure puts a damper on my plans. We were planning to free the prisoners back at Xavier's old place.And now we have to watch or   
backs for robots too??"  
"Could be a good idea anyway, if you do it fast. According to my spy, humans in one shape or the other is necessary raw material for them."  
  
Logan visibly flinches at that. "People still messing with nature eh? Can't allow that. We'll have to free those poor suckers before that."  
"Yeah."  
"Do you know how much time we have?"  
"No. I would guess a couple of days at least."  
"Hm, not much but it will have to do. We have some planning to do then. Since you now know this place, feel free to stay. Well, you would have to anyway.   
The streets above will be literlly crawling with hunters in half an hour so you better stay here until tomorrow at least. But how the hell did you find me?"  
"Hank knew."  
"Hank? How could he know that?"  
"He's smart so he heard something someone said that gave it away."  
"Figures he would be the one. But come on, let's grab something to eat and plan our strategy." 


	8. Chapter 8

"So, what's for dinner Logan? Something romantic I hope." Marie said with a sad look in her eyes.  
"You wish. Me too for that matter."  
"Yeah. You have to ration the food too I guess."  
"Too much. Barely enough to keep all of us going." Then Logans eyes also looked sadder than they  
did a minute before "One died of starvation last week."  
"That's it. Then I will not eat. I wait till I get 'home'."  
"Don't be silly. One mouth extra for one day won't make any difference. I will survive so if worst comes to worst,   
I refrain from eating tomorrow."  
"Still."  
"No still. You're eating with me tonight. I won't take a no for an answer." he said with a pleading look in his eyes.   
The very picture of the sad puppy look.  
"No fair. You know I can't say to you when you act like that."  
"I know. Why do you think I did it?"  
She hits him playfully on the shoulder. "Grow up, you big lug."  
"Nah. What fun would that be?"  
"None I guess. But you haven't answered my question."  
"Because I don't know yet. We'll just have to see what our food-gatherers have found."  
"Food gatherers?"  
"Yes. We have to steal or find our food above, or buy but it's rare that we can afford it. Don't you have to do it that way?"  
"No. Not yet anyway. Our hideout is an old bunker used by one of those survivalist types. There's enough food stowed away there for a while yet.   
Hank's more up-to-date on how long it will last."  
"Good that you don't have to starve."  
"We don't exactly have the possibility of getting fat either. Finding and stealing? Meaning you rob the local restaurants and getting what have   
been thrown away?"  
"That's the gist of it."  
"I'm sorry."  
"Don't be. At least we survive."  
"I guess, but just barely."  
"Will have to be enough. Ah, here's the 'kitchen'. Let's see what's on store for today."  
  
Logan talked to the 'chef' for a couple of minutes and came back with a  
small carton.  
  
"We were lucky today. Some bread that's passable, even if it still smells like garbage and some hamburgers. Just the meat I'm afraid."  
"It's good enough. We can't be picky can we?"  
"No."  
  
They ate and in the midst of the gravity of it all they could still be able to make small talk, talking of old times and remembering them with   
fondness even if the old times also had their shares of misery. Nothing that could compary to the grim reality of today though, which made it   
somehow bearable.  
  
"You know, Logan. I've really missed this."  
"What? Sitting in a small room in New York's sewage system trying to ignore the smell while eating a half-raw hamburger and some old bread?" A small   
hint of laughter and mirth was evident in Logans voice and it must have been contagious since it made Marie laugh too, for the first time in what she felt   
was years.  
  
"No, not that dummy. Spending time with you. We see eachother so rarely nowadays that this feels like a true miracle. I only wish it could last and that   
we could back to not hiding anymore."  
"Yeah, I feel the same way." Logan said before embracing Marie with the type of hug lovers that hasn't seen eachother in years use. They stood like that   
for ages, not talking. Just enjoying eachothers company and the warmth of the others body, reluctant to let go.  
  
In the end though, they did. Not because they wanted to but because theyfelt they had to. Reality was never far away, closing in. Plans had to be made to   
try to change how the world was.  
  
"You said you were going to free some prisoners?"  
"Yeah. Those held at Xavier's old place. Been there since we left in a hurry?"  
"No. Too many sad memories."  
"Agreed, but I have been there to see how it's like now. It spells trouble with a capital T. But with your news, we must free them regardless."  
"So, what's the plan?"  
"Once we get in, there shouldn't be a problem. The place has only ten guards all in all, living on the grounds guarding around 50 mutants."  
"Outnumbered like that what's stopping the mutants from revolting?"  
"The fence. And some equipment attached to it. It makes mutant gifts unusable and if the guards are attacked, all they have to do is to press a button on   
their belts and the same equipment will instantly render the mutants unconscious. I don't know how it works but I've seen it done."  
"So the first course of action must be to render the fence and the rest of the equipment to useless rubble."  
"Yes, and that's the problem. The extra equipment is some globes on top of the fence, beyond the reach for humans. I could reach them with my claws and destroy   
them but I can't get near enough. The globes constantly does that render-mutants-unconscious thing outwards so I'd be out cold before being able to do anything.   
I don't know how to solve that problem."  
"I do."  
"I'm all ears."  
"There's a human living in my shelter. A Carol Danvers, former pilot. I don't know how and she's reluctant to tell but she has somehow gotten the ability to fly   
as well as some superstrength. But she's not a mutant and wouldn't be affected by that."   
  
When she said that, she realised that she lied to Hank. Unwittingly but still. Or did she do it because she desperatly wanted to see Logan?  
She has no good answer to that.  
  
"Hm. Would she be willing to help?"  
"She has before and I'm certain she will again. She's one of the few in my group that has some fighting abilities. Once we're in with those things knocked out,   
we have a shot of destroying at least one of those abominable facilities. What do you say?"  
"I say we go for it. Tomorrow when you can get back to your place and get her. Now, let's go to  
bed and get some rest." 


	9. Chapter 9

Logan and Marie slowly and very reluctantly made their way towards Logans bed. Reluctantly   
because they didn't want the day to end. They had only seen eachother for a couple of hours  
but that was a luxury both of them wanted more of. Much more. Especially now  
since those hours were more than they had seen of eachother since atleast six months.  
Six long months. Six months where there could be weeks between the few meetings they could  
get away with. Awfully short meetings at that. 10 minutes here and half an hour there.  
Simply just not enough for any couple used to, back in happier days, be able to spend  
almost every single moment together if they so choosed. But they knew they had to  
preserve their strength and get as much sleep as possible in preparation for the days  
to come, maybe their last chance to spend some time together and perhaps even their  
last days alive.  
  
Logans bed, like everyone elses, turned out to be just a worn mattress lying  
directly on the dirty floor with an almost as worn blanket on top of it. The bedroom was  
a semi-large room that in reality was more of a community room than just a bedroom. Marie  
was a bit baffled at that. Not the community part, that was to be expected. It only  
made sense that everyone was close by in case there ever were a red alert situation  
needed to be handled immediately. No, what baffled her why there was such a large  
room down in the sewage system. Not really large compared to usual standards but  
considering the location it was enormous. When she asked Logan about it he shrugged his  
shoulders and answered "We don't really know but suspects it once was some kind of  
warehouse and toolshed for maintenance workers, back when maintenance was actually  
done down here. It's not like the Mansion, I know."  
  
"Don't worry about that. 'My' place isn't better. Well, it doesn't stink but  
otherwise" she trailed of. Logan just smiled at her and said "Like I said, not like the mansion.  
I don't know how it is in your shelter but I'm afraid that there's no room  
for modesty here so if you feel the need to wash up there's just the small sink in the  
corner over there" he pointed into a corner where a couple of old buckets and a  
barrel stood, looking embarrassed "Okay, we just call it a sink. Anyway, I will  
make sure everyone keeps their eyes where they should be."  
  
"On me?" she said mischievously.  
  
Whenever Marie was in that teasing mode, Logan never could resist the temptation to  
play along and this time was no exception. It was one of the many things he missed  
dearly since he lost most of his friends and more importantly, when he got  
involuntarily separated from Marie - his best friend, lover and confidante.  
The only thing she hadn't been to him was his wife. There was, after all, a problem  
with getting married if you don't have a last name or a birth certificate or  
anything to prove that you are really you so that had never been an option. They had  
settled for the next best thing though - considered themselves husband and  
wife despite that. No one had minded that but it still felt like a loss. It  
was something he had always wanted to do when he found the right woman but it  
had never occured to him that there were obstacles in his way.  
  
"Didn't know you had turned to be an exhibitionist."  
"Depends on who's looking."  
"And who would be the lucky guy?"  
"Oh, I don't know...Hugh Heffner?"  
  
Logan couldn't help it. He roared with laughter so much that it felt like he couldn't breathe.  
  
"Got a thing for older men Marie?"  
"Yeah, I'm with you after all." she said, laughing along and then hugging him again  
"But don't worry about the modesty thing. A bit less private here than what I'm used  
to but I can handle it. That is, as long as you don't suggest we have sex here."  
  
Logan tried to look disappointed but failed miserably since he wasn't really  
into public sex either. Otherwise he would have been really disappointed he  
thought, especially since Marie now could control her mutation even if it was only  
for a limited time so far. And for some weird reason no one had been able to  
figure out, the mutation turned itself off when she was sleeping. It was only when  
she was awake she had to concentrate to avoid sucking up the lifeforce from  
whoever she touched.  
  
"Behave now, big boy when I wash up." she said and then headed for the 'sink'. Logan  
laid himself down on the bed, trying to relax. Damn hard to do when the love  
of his life was so close by getting undressed. At least partially. He didn't think  
she would strip down completely in a room with a couple of stranger and more  
that could walk in at any time. He knew she didn't mind that he watched her but he  
himself had serious problems with the fact that there was other men in the same room  
where she was, now with her breasts exposed for public view. He also knew that the  
other guys wouldn't stare but he still didn't like it since they would get  
glimpses of her naked flesh - something he wanted to be for his benefit only.  
  
"I'm being silly" he told himself, but not believing himself fully. It's not  
like Marie's the first woman down here, having to do this. In fact the shelter  
had 3 other women living there but were out on 2 different assignments this  
particular night. Nice looking women too but he had never been tempted by them, despite  
that they had been there so long now that they didn't even bother to try to  
conseal themselves anymore. One of them was particulary daring. She could walk out of   
bed stark naked and head for the sink, standing in line there chattering away with whoever was  
also there. Same with the guys but since Logan wasn't gay he hadn't really thought of  
that in the same way. Just something people living like this had to get used  
to. Even in environments like this you have to get cleaned up. No, not even.  
Especially in environments like this.  
  
That was when he noticed that Marie was finished by the sink and was dressed  
again. No, not completely dressed. But she was at least wearing her bra again.  
Logan felt some strange mixture of relief and disappointment but couldn't decide which  
one of the feelings was the stronger one. It didn't matter long, however. The  
feeling of disappointment promptly disappeared when Marie laid herself down next to  
him and cuddled up to him.  
  
"Hi beutiful."  
"Hi handsome."  
  
How they had missed that. A part of their nightly ritual. Sometimes it had  
led to sex afterwards, sometimes not. But those endearments had always been there -  
even when they had been angry with eachother. How much things had changed. Not  
between them but everything else. The endearments were proof enough that  
nothing significant in the relationship had changed. They'd been apart for so long  
and still the rituals and the love stayed the same. A true sign of true love, Logan  
liked to think. And if he was wrong, he didn't want to know.  
  
"Ready for sleep yet?" he asked.  
"Not quite." she said, while slipping under the sheet, bringing Logan with  
her and covering them with the blanket. "I'd love to just lie here, pretending  
everything's alright."  
"No arguement from me, darlin'"  
  
They just lied there, taking comfort in eachother - kissing, hugging and  
everything else they used to do - apart from making love. Not that they didn't want to.  
They did, desperatly. It had literally been years since they had been able to and  
it showed. The lust and love was almost tangible which led to the kisses and  
tender touches to become more heated almost by the second. It didn't take  
long before Marie was touching Logan gently but arousing between the legs through  
his boxers and kissing herself down his chest.  
  
"Marie?"  
"Yes?"  
"I thought you said you didn't want sex here?"  
"I changed my mind. Do you mind?"  
  
No, he didn't mind. He surprised himself with that. The very thought of  
having sex where anyone could spot them would put a damper on it, or that was what he  
had always thought. Marie proved him wrong because he was already hard as a rock. "What  
the hell. I take my chances" he thought before Marie took it one step further and  
slipped her hand inside his boxers, stroking his erection. He himself had no trouble  
removing her bra and giving him access to her beutiful breasts. As far back as he  
could remember, he had had this fascination with womens breasts. He didn't know  
why but since no woman he had ever been with seemd to mind, he didn't either.  
  
"No darlin'. I don't mind. I just don't want to be a part of a peep show if  
the people around us wake up."  
"Have you no selfcontrol" she teased "We'll just have to do it quiet."  
  
To Logans amazement, he found out that he had more selfcontrol when it comes  
to sex than he had given himself credit for. The foreplay was exquisite  
on both his and Maries part and when he found that he was ready to scream  
out he reminded himself of the one time when he had walked in on two other  
people having sex in this very room and bit his tounge hard to keep the  
scream from spilling. He had never felt so embarrassed in his life when he had  
encountered that particular episode and maybe that was why he had this  
before unencountered selfcontrol. He didn't want to be the one being  
walked in on even if most wouldn't be surprised to find him making  
love to his beloved Marie. Everyone knew how much they loved eachother  
and would be truly delighted to find them back together permanently.  
  
Both of them almost lost the control when it moved beyond the stage of  
petting and foreplay though. The lovemaking was simply sweet, tender,  
gentle and loving - everything they both had been longing for for so  
long. It had never been intended to have sex this way but they both  
enjoyed so immensly they were beyond caring that someone might walk  
in on them.  
  
As with all things, everything good sometime has to end. This thing  
ended on a good note, something that went right right for a change.  
Something they both needed to feel complete, to feel that someone  
loves them even if the world at large doesn't. Something that was  
so right that no further words were necessary. They just needed  
to look in eachothers eyes to know what it was and what it meant.  
  
Everything. 


	10. Chapter 10

Both Logan and Marie slowly drifted of to sleep after their lovemaking feeling that   
maybe Lennon and McCartney was right after all - "All you need is love". Neither  
had any nightmares, which was rare. They usually came to one of them at least any  
given night but after they had become a couple all those years ago, they had soon  
discovered that the nightmares were much less common when they were together. As if the  
universe, fate or God somehow had intended them to be together. Of course, humanity and  
cruelty had been determined to tear them apart. Physically but not emotionally.  
Emotionally the bond was as strong as ever, if not stronger.  
  
They both woke up at around 10 in the morning, Logan being the first one to  
wake up. He knew they had a lot to do during the day but he just didn't have the  
heart to wake Marie up. Not only was she strikingly beutiful even under the worst  
of circumstances but during sleep she seemed so much at peace. The troubles  
and pains of the world forgotten. What he wouldn't give to have her be that  
happy and at peace even during her waking moments. Himself, he was only like  
that during two things. The first one being when he could release all his anger  
and resentments towards something - the reason why he had ever contemplated  
entering cage-fights and later being a part of the X-men team in the first place. He  
didn't felt like that during the fights but afterwards when the adrenaline levels  
once again had descended into their usual spot. He didn't have any regrets regarding  
that, no matter how 'barbaric' it might seem. The cage-fighting part had led him to  
this beutiful, loving woman after all and no matter how you slice it that couldn't be bad.  
  
As for the X-men part, it had led him to understand the nature of friendship and  
committment. Something he as far back as he could remember always had shied away from.  
Now, he didn't want that self-appointed loneliness back. He only regretted that  
he hadn't been able to save the people he cared about. Scott, Jeannie, Chuck, Rasputin  
and most recently Storm. The biggest regret was Rasputin. Peter Rasputin. He had  
always liked that kid and they had become friends fast. Now, thanks to that bastard  
Robert Kelly, he would perhaps be forced to kill him. He didn't know why Peter had been  
chosen to be 'transformed' into a assassin for Kelly's cause but he had given up  
trying to figure out Kelly's reasons. He only knew that if they ever ran into  
Rasputin, it would be trouble. Both he and Marie would face some, not to mention a  
lot, of difficulty trying to battle Rasputin and not because of his powers either. Out of  
loyalty. He had, after all, been a part of the X-men for a long time. Peter however wouldn't  
have that difficulty. He most likely didn't even remember that they had once been  
friends. And now he had been assigned to kill or convert Marie. No, Logan didn't look  
forward to that confrontation at all. No matter who won, everyone would lose in one  
way or the other. Except Kelly. Which was really getting to Logan. The bastard guilty  
of it all was the one walking away from it, withot a scar to show for it!  
  
The only other time he was at peace was when he was with Marie. Like now.  
Otherwise he would pretty much be like that dwarf in the Disney movie "Snowhite and the  
seven dwarfs". The one with the constant bad-temper. He didn't know why or how he  
remembered that movie but he figured that's how things are when you have what Scott once   
termed as "swizz cheese memory". Just full of holes. Either way, he just felt like a whole person  
when he was close to Marie. That was the only time he felt like that. Never else. And it  
didn't matter if it was just a five-minute talk or a whole night of making love either. As long as  
she was nearby, everything else faded into insignificanse. And right now, it felt like everything  
was going to dissolve. Becaus he knew that when she woke up she'd leave  
again. Temporary? Maybe. If they both were extremely lucky. If he was honest with himself it  
was much more likely that either she wouldn't return in time with help or one or even both  
of them would be killed during the attack of the former safe haven for mutants. Not something  
he liked to think about so he concentratad all his thoughths on the beutiful woman  
sleeping in his bed, despite the fact that she could have gotten whoever she had set her  
eyes on.  
  
He just felt so lucky that despite everything, he was that guy. Despite cheese memory,  
anti-mutant laws, retirements of people they both held dear and involuntarily being  
kept apart - she still loved him. Lucky, grateful and being in love just  
didn't begin to describe what he and she felt about eachother. Logan didn't know how to  
describe it better than that so he firmly had decided to not even try. It would only  
sound like a cliche' in the end and that was one thing he absolutely did not want it to  
sound like.  
  
The bottom line of it all was, however, that he loved Marie with all of his  
heart and soul and he'd rather die than see her being hurt. He knew that he at  
least partially had failed in that, given that she had to be constantly on the run and aware  
of what she was doing but that was one of the things he was determined to change! She  
deserved that and so much more! He would have given her the stars, the moon and the sun if  
she had asked for it and he had known how to give it to her. Doing whatever he could  
to keep her from being hurt was easy in comparison and even if/when it isn't, it's  
something he would be only too willing to give to her.  
  
If he only knew how. 


	11. Chapter 11

When Marie woke up, she found herself looking straight into Logans eyes. Eyes filled with love, devotion  
and to her great distress - more than a hint of sadness. A lot of sadness and grief truth be told.  
  
"Logan? What's wrong?"  
"Wrong? Nothing's wrong. Not more than usual that is."  
"You know, you can't lie to me even if you tried. And now you're not even trying."  
"I'm still that transparant am I?"  
  
Marie laughed at that. "To me, yes. To others I'm not so sure. So talk to me. Why do you look like the world has ended?"  
"I dunno. Or I do know, I think, but don't know how to say it."  
"Just try, okay?"  
"Well. You know, I thought I had come to terms with how the world has changed the last ten years.  
Or America really. That people like us are fair game to 'retire' or kill if you use the right word at whim. No matter if   
the killer was a government official or just the average guy from the street you know? This last day has shown me how wrong I was."  
"How?"  
"This last day has felt like you and me could have had a shot at a normal life, if things had been just slightly different you know.   
And now it kills me to know that that might never happen. If I'm truly honest with myself, I don't think it will ever happen.  
Sure, I knew all this things before. How could I not given what has happened the last ten years? But it had never truly registered. Not   
where it counts. Intellectually, I knew it. My heart just refused to believe it. And the times when the heart tried to reason with my  
mind, I just didn't listen. I have always known that you've loved me but I tried to shut it out. Not because I didn't love you - don't ever   
think that. But because I thought it might be easier to handle it if you somehow didn't make it, and lets face it - it's a miracle that the both of  
us are still alive. But last day and the time we could spend together made all the walls I've built around my own feelings tumble down. And we're about   
to do something that might turn out to be the stupidest thing we've ever done. That's saying something about me at least. I don't think  
I could handle it if you got severly hurt on that mission, or even worse. Got killed. Am I making any sense here?"  
  
"Oh, poor baby. Yes, you're making complete sense. It's much like what I've been through too. I don't know how to make it better for either you or me.   
I wish I did. But could you live with yourself if you didn't try to make your best to help the poor ones interned at that camp that has committed no crime   
but being born different?"  
"No, not anymore. I once could have but not now. I just, well, wish things could have been different and feeling sorry for myself, I guess."  
"But will you be alright?"  
"Yeah. I've been through this before. It's not easy but I can do it."  
"So the plan still holds?"  
"You bet."  
"Wanna share more with me?"  
"Not much to share. The attack-team will consist of me, you, your friend Carol and two other guys here going by the names of Blob and Proudstar. Don't   
know their real names but they're real powerhorses. Proudstar is strong beyond belief and Blob is pretty much the defination of invulnerability. If he doesn't want   
to get moved, he doesn't get moved. Period."  
"So it's just a bunch of muscle-guys really?"  
"In essence, yes. Shouldn't be a problem with only ten human guards against us and 50 mutants dying to be freed."  
"I hope you're right."  
"Me too."  
  
After that, they just lied together for a while like all couples should be able to do in the mornings. Or whenever they felt like it for that matter. Logan felt  
like, well, he didn't have the words to express it but somehow Marie had lifted his spirits somewhat. Something she had always been the expert at. No one else  
could do that as good as she could with just a look and with a few words. Ororo had been the only one even close to that but she was dead now. Something he refused  
to think about or his mood would once again sink into a bottomless black hole.  
  
Eventually though, they made their way out of bed and prepared to meet the day. The morning rituals were short, they couldn't be otherwise considering the  
circumstances, but neither Logan or Marie had never been ones for taking their sweet time during the morning even when they were not forced to live in New  
Yorks sewage system so that was not really a big problem.  
  
Shortly after that, they both went out into the streets of New York. Cautiously as ever. Marie to get back to her own shelter to bring back much needed  
help. Logan because this was his day to be among the food-gatherers. He may be the leader but that didn't excuse him from doing the dirty work. He didn't want  
to be excused either. If he had been, it had given a bad example for the other people that trusted him as a leader and team-mate.  
  
They took their fond farewells with the mother of all hugs and a heated kiss neither wanted to break.  
  
When it finally broke and Marie left for her own shelter, waving a good-bye as she went, Logan couldn't help but think "Will I ever see her again?" 


	12. Chapter 12

When Marie left Logans side starting to move towards her destination where  
Hank, and more importantly Carol, would be she had the same morbid thought.  
Realistic she tried to tell herself without much success. Morbid or realistic   
didn't really matter she also realised. What mattered was that whatever you called  
it it was downright depressing. It was no wonder the drug-use in the mutant  
community had gone through the roof in basically no time flat after the  
mutant registration act had been passed, she thought. Everything to keep the mind  
of the stark reality surrounding them on all fronts. Among the less powerful  
mutants in certain areas it was actually a larger killer than the  
retirements but no one cared of course. It wasn't encouraged either but that was mostly  
due to that the government didn't know how to do that. In the end, all they  
cared about was that there were less muties on the streets. There were even  
rumours of designer drugs out there that were more or less harmless to  
ordinary humans but incredibly addictive if you happened to be a mutant. No one knew  
for sure but Hank suspected it was just that - a rumour.  
  
"Enough wallowing in self-pity, Marie" she told herself. "Concentrate on  
getting home so you can get Carol to go back with you. Concentrate,  
otherwise you could as well throw yourself under a passing train for all  
the good you'd do anyone". As hard as it was she managed to get her  
feelings under a certain degree of control. Her thoughts wandered of  
every now and then but all in all she felt she were in control. Good thing  
it was daylight too. Official hunters didn't care if it was day or night  
but they were few and far between, relatively speaking. The self-appointed  
ones however were many but they mainly worked at night. She wasn't sure why  
but suspected it was because it was easier to get away then if they  
accidently retired a human by mistake. Which had happened frequently enough. Often  
enough so that it was a liability for Kellys cause. Granted, not a big liability  
but enough so that it made the days somewhat safe because of the simple reason  
that someone that did that mistake and got identified became as much of an outlaw  
as the mutants themselves. Something Marie was eternally grateful of because  
it made her journey home so much easier.  
  
"Hank? You here?"  
Hank came out of one the smaller rooms in the shelter, serving as a  
makeshift infirmary. They didn't have much medical supplies but Hank had proven  
himself quite capable of improvising when needed. Everyone dreaded the day when  
that would prove to be inadequate. Which would probably be soon as they  
were almost out of supplies.  
  
"Ah, you made it back. Did you meet Logan?"  
"I sure did. And we've made some plans."  
"I'm sure I'm not going to like this."  
"Maybe not. We're going to attack the Westchester camp."  
"Is that wise? And for what reason?"  
"The reason is that we figured it is there Trask will find the rawmaterial for his robots. It's the   
largest camp after all."  
"Logical enough but I still question the wisdom in doing it."  
"What else would you have us do Hank? If those things gets manufactured we will be sitting ducks."  
"But it's suicide."  
"Not necessarily. Logan's team has found a weakness we plan to exploit but we will need help in doing it."  
"What help?"  
"Carols."  
"Because she's powerful and not a mutant, am I right?"  
"As always."  
"Well, then. I am still not sure I approve of this but it's Carols decision. Go talk to her and see what she says.   
She's in the kitchen."  
"Will do."  
  
With that Marie left Hank thinking. Marie knew Hank wasn't a coward but at times it felt like he was. The truth is   
that he didn't think the "fight fire with fire" tactic would do them any good but he didn't have any good alternative  
either. So he made do, patching people up when needed and was the shoulder to cry on when that was what was needed.  
  
"Carol?"  
"I'm here Rogue. What's up?"  
"I need your help. You up for some action?"  
"Always am!" she grinned. Marie had always failed to understand Carol in some ways. She was almost suicidal at times and   
had an eagerness to go into battle at all times not even Logan or Creed could match. Carol wasn't willingly answering why  
she was like that and no one had the heart to pry. And moreover, she was too valuable and powerful to have on your bad side.   
If she'd decide she didn't want anything more to do with this fight it would put a serious dent in their efforts to fight  
of Kelly and his goons.  
  
"Good. Me and a couple of people from Logans shelter will attack a camp tonight if you're in. If you're not, we will have to call it off."  
"Oh, count on me. The gene-nazis running those camps have had it too easy lately eh?"  
"You got that one right. Ready to go to Logans shelter at once then so we can fill you in on everything?"  
"Lead the way."  
  
Why does it feel like I'm being led into my doom Marie silently wondered and couldn't make up her mind if she was just being jumpy or was   
foreseeing the future. She didn't like it either was but remained silent and the two women silently  
left the shelter, maybe never coming back. Or even if they did - would they be unscathed. Only time would tell. 


	13. Chapter 13

Carol and Marie made it back to Logans shelter as quickly as they could. Which wasn't  
very fast at all. First, they didn't have the luxury of really rushing. If they rushed  
and ran into the wrong people it could be taken, and often were when people  
rushed, as if they were running away from someone or something. Most likely from a  
mutant hunter or two. Life in the modern times, paranoia be thy name. And secondly there   
had been an accident while Marie was 'home' talking to Hank and Carol which made it nigh  
near impossible to get across one street for several hours. Carol could have flewn them over   
but all things considered, attention was the last they needed or wanted. So when they  
finally had made it to Logans shelter, the time had already flewn to 5 in the afternoon.  
  
"You took your sweet time" Logan said when they met him inside the shelter.  
"Does it matter, sugah?"  
"Nah, but was beginning to worry."  
"Sorry." Marie said and gave Logan a quick kiss. "Meet Carol Danvers, Logan.  
Our flying knight. She has no armour though except her skin."  
"Nice to meet ya. Let's go in here" Logan said leaving towards the 'community' room  
"Blob and Proudstar are waiting for us."  
  
"Now that we're all here, let me recap the plan" Logan began.  
"Carol, you will go first taking down all the globes negating our powers. Rogue tells me you can   
fly and have superhuman strength? That's right?"  
"It sure is."  
"So that poses no problem then?"  
"No. But I'll have to warn you that that will almost certainly be all I can  
do. Using both strength and flying at the same time is very exhausting. How many  
globes are there anyway?"  
"About 30 and if you take 'em down, you've done more than your share. 36 to  
be exact. Just find some place to take cover afterwards. Blob, you and Rogue  
heads for the prison-cells and gets them out of the damn place while me and  
Proudstar takes on the guards. His strength and my claws should be enough to take   
care of them. Any objections?"  
  
Everyone was silent and Logan continued "Good! Let's go then and kick some  
ass!"  
  
The small band of outlaws made their way out to the Westchester camp and  
taking their time. On purpose. They were going to take advantage of the dark as far  
as possible. Almost everywhere else they would most likely have run into at  
least one hunter in the dead of the night but not there. First, because  
the authorities thought that was the one place in Westchester where mutants  
would stay as far away from as possible. Why would they take the risk of  
losing their powers and be captured or retired for? Normally they would  
be right. And secondly because the hunters didn't bother with being  
there because if any mutants would show up by any chance the guards inside  
the camp were supposed to deal with them. Both of those things played right  
into the hands of the freedom fighters.  
  
They hid away outside the gates of the former mansion, surveying their  
surroundings and waiting patiently for when it would be dark enough  
for their purposes. Both Marie and Logan felt sadder almost by every  
passing second - the place was too filled with old memories. But then  
Logan noticed something and had to fight hard from burst out laughing.  
  
"Do you see that?" he said.  
"What? The rest of does not have your keen eyesight." Blob answered.  
"All of the security cameras look inwards! They are only meant to  
monitor the prisoners, not to give a warning for potential intruders.  
That over-confidence will cost them dearly" he said, extending his claws  
for good measure. "Time to act, don't you think?" he then asked. Everyone  
agreed and Carol almost immediately flew up and headed towards the first  
globe and smashing into smithereens and moving right along to the next one.  
It didn't take long until enough had been destroyed so the rest of them  
could make their entrance with Proudstar ripping the gate open. If that  
was what triggered it or not was unclear but all of a sudden an alarm went  
of and searchlights was lighting up the sky. Everyone felt like it was too  
late to turn back anyway so they went ahead with the plan.  
  
Nothing looked the same as when Logan and Marie had lived there. There were  
only two buildings on the grounds, two almost identical square concrete  
buildings. Logan immediatly left for one of them and shouting at Marie and  
Blob to get the prisoners out of the other. They ran towards it as fast as  
they possibly could. Blob was surprisingly fast for his size and could keep up  
with Marie quite easily. They looked behind them to see how Logan and  
Proudstar were doing and saw that they did not have to worry one bit. They were  
mercilessly knocking down and slicing up guards left, right and center.  
When they reached the prison house, Blob threw his impressively large  
body towards the prison-door and it fell of the hinges immediately.  
  
They went inside, finding prisoners looking impossibly thin and haggard  
everywhere. It wasn't easy to convince them that they were there to save  
them but succeeded with one after one. The prisoners wouldn't be of  
much use, if any, in their fight though. First because of the trauma  
they all had been through and secondly because it was obvious that most  
of them were not there because of their formidable powers but because  
of their looks. Most of them were obvious mutants. Several had tails.  
At least one had what mostly looked like gills. One had a set of antennas  
on top of her head. Anyway, they were not their to recruit. They were  
there to save.  
  
Eventually they had gotten everyone out of the building and were headed  
towards the exit. Blob carried two and a few of the former prisoners  
were helping the most worn out ones. Marie was a bit behind the others  
when she heard something behind her and tried to turn around.  
  
Too late. Someone or something swept up behind her, grabbed her around  
the waist and flew up into the air bringing her with him. Or it  
she realised. A it her powers wouldn't do squat against. A flying  
robot. That was when she noticed Carol flewing up against her and the  
robot, intending to save her no doubt. Not that it did either of them  
any good. The robot just used the arm he didn't use to hold Marie with  
to knock Carol over the head, knocking her out. Before she fell to the  
ground the robot caught her and flew of towards Manhattan with its  
two prisoners.  
  
Logan, meanwhile, stood on the ground looking up in disbelief and utter  
horror. And feeling as useless as it was humanly possible to feel.  
He and Proudstar had defeated all the guards and the prisoners  
were free but Logans world was about to shatter.  
  
"Marie!" he screamed before falling down on his knees, weeping in defeat. 


	14. Chapter 14

Logan was in a daze, walking around with no purpose any more. It had been four days since  
the attack on the camp and he had no idea of how the rest of them had gotten back home,  
nor how they had managed to get the prisoners with them. He didn't really care  
anymore either. Before he had met her, he had desperately longed for death but had also  
known it wouldn't claim him for a long time if nothing out of the ordinary happened.  
Logans life could really be divided into three phases. Before, during and the most  
dreaded after Marie. Now the dreaded part three had come true and Logan just couldn't  
handle it.  
  
If he had asked Blob or Proudstar, or had been able to ask in the first place  
for that matter, they would have answered him how they got back but he hadn't and it  
didn't look like he was going to anytime soon either. They, however, tried their very best to  
get through to him but so far with little success. None really. He seemed to have given up on  
everything since Rogue went missing. They hadn't know Logan for very long but they had come to  
rely on that he was always the strong one. Not physically since they both were stronger than  
him in that regard but mentally and emotionally. Then again, they didn't know how deep his  
feelings for this Rogue really went. They'd first met her during the mission briefing and before that,  
well they had known about her but that was about it. Logan, even during the best of times, was not  
an open book to read about his personal life or his past.  
  
Blob, being the only one that had ever been able to escape from one of those facilities  
on his own accord, strongly suspected that Rogue was still alive. If they had  
wanted her dead she would have been killed on the spot. But he hadn't said anything to  
Logan yet. He was still struggling internally wheter it was good to give him hope  
that she might be alive or not. If she wasn't a lot stronger than she looked like she would  
soon hope she was dead if that time hasn't passed already. He knew firsthand what the  
bastards that took her were capable of doing to people they didn't consider human in the  
first place. Would he really be better of finding an alive Rogue but one that was broken  
down in all the ways you could possibly imagine? With her body being just a broken shell  
and the woman that was once inside gone for all times? Still breathing but only out of  
reflex? Everything that needed conscious thought and effort forgotten?  
  
The only reason he himself hadn't broken down there was because he had been lucky.  
Damn lucky. A new guard that wasn't as familiar with all the surveilance  
equipment and torture devices as he should have been so he got a little caught by  
surprise, making it easier for Blob to escape. And that was several years ago, when  
retirering mutants not to mention trying to dig information out of them was still a  
novelty. Security must certainly have improved since then. That...that...thing that  
kidnapped Rogue and Carol certainly proved that point.  
  
And even if Logan needed to know about it, how to go about telling him? Could  
he even hear them? Frustrating to say the least.  
  
That's when he heard someone behind him and he turned around, seeing one of the  
guys they'd rescued. Native american-looking.   
  
"You look troubled" he said.  
"What, you read my mind or somethin'?"  
"Nope, not my power. If it had been, I'd be dead. Or retired." he spit out.  
"Sorry, didn't catch your name. But you're probably right about the dead thing."  
"Goes by the name of Forge. And you don't have to tell me what you're worried about. It's Wolverine, am I not right?"  
"Yes. You know him?"  
"Not personally but he's made himself quite a reputation. What has made him the way he is now?"  
"I don't know if you noticed but when we saved you two of our people were kidnapped by some robot of some sort."  
"Really? Didn't know the Sentinels were beyond the prototype stage yet. Still, people of your team must have been killed or   
brought in to their 'lovely' torture-chambers before."  
"Yes, but one of the women kidnapped is Logans fiancee, girlfrind, wife or whatever their relationship is."  
"I see."  
  
Blob could at times be dense and this one of those times but it finally dawned on him. "Wait a minute. You didn't seem surprised   
when I mentioned the robot and even called it Sentinel. A brand name I take it. How's that?"  
"Because I've been forced to develope certain parts of it."  
"And you're not ashamed of it?"  
"I certainly am!" Forge said with heat, "But I did it anyway. For several reasons. One is that I am fond of life actually, and if   
I hadn't cooperated I know my life would have been forfeited. Sounds cowardly, I know. But I'm as valuable to Kelly  
as I am to you despite that I'm partly responsible for the Sentinels."  
"How's that?"  
"Well, my mutant power is to be able to construct things on instinct. All I need is the raw material to build the thing. I could,   
for instance, build something to make the mutant-negators ineffective. Imagine how much more effective or fight  
for freedom would be with that."  
"A lot more! That why you cooperated with Kelly? Because you knew that if you ever managed to escape you'd be valueable in the fight against him?"  
"You got it.If it hadn't been for that talent, I'd be dead or atleast in a much worse shape than I am."  
  
Blob thought for a few moments before saying "You know, as much as your talent would be helpful right now all I can think of is getting Logan back   
to his own self. His talents for leadership and experience is invaluable. You don't know if there's an empath or something amongst you that could help   
in that matter?"  
"Not that I know of. But I know one thing that would help."  
"What's that?"  
"Getting his fiancee back of course."  
"Yes, duh! But how? We don't even know where she is or even if she's alive!"  
"I can't answer all of that. But I can answer one of the questions."  
"Which one?"  
"Where she is. Whether she's alive or not remains to be seen." 


	15. Chapter 15

3 days earlier  
Marie POV  
  
Where am I? And where's everyone? Not here apparently. I'm still groggy, need to see.   
And move. Everything's in a blur. And I can't move. Why's that? Breathe. Breathe deep. And again.  
Concentrate on seeing first. Breathe. Never mind that you cannot move. I know it's hard to ignore   
but remember the self-control the Professor once thought you. It's not easy but you can do this.  
  
Many agonizing minutes later I finally manages to see again, somewhat blurry still but improving all the  
time. "Thank you, Professor" I silently thinks to myself knowing all too well he can't hear me.  
  
I'm in some small room, bare walls. Only a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Apart from that the only   
thing in here is the small bunk I'm lying on. No, not lying. Or well, lying but not voluntarily. I'm tied down to   
it with leather-staps around both my ankles and both my wrists. Very securely too I find out. I can't move a single inch.  
  
Then a door opens in the far corner and a man enters. When he comes closer, I recognise him. I'd recognise that face  
anywhere. Robert Kelly. And suddenly my vision is crystal clear.  
  
He approaches me and then says "How're you doing my dear?"  
How dare he!  
  
"How do you think I'm feeling? Tied down in one of your torture chambers, feeling disorientated? And don't you dare calling me  
'my dear'! Only one man is allowed to call me that and I wouldn't even dignify you with calling you a man. How long was I out?"  
"Such resentment towards me, when there really is no need. I only want what's best. As to answer your questions, you have been  
out for approximately a day. Sorry about the drugging part."  
"What's best? Certainly not for me or the ones I love, so the resentment is pretty well founded if you ask me. And I don't believe  
for one minute or even second that the sorry is sincere."  
"I didn't say I want the best for you. I want the best for all mankind."  
"Were you born stupid or is that something you picked up along the way?"  
"You're pretty cocky for one that lives or die at my mercy, I grant you that."  
"Really? What do I have to lose, huh? The only two options left, as long as it's up to you anyway, is to die or to be converted. I can   
just as well speak my mind because it's hardly going to make my situation any less dire. And speaking of which, why am I here instead   
of either being dead or converted?"  
"All will be revealed in good time. If you answer some of my questions I might answer some of yours."  
"A quid pro quo, huh? Fine. Ask but I won't guarantee I will answer."  
"To use your own words, fine. Why did you and your friends attack the camp? I think I know the answer but I want it in your words."  
"Duh. To save some people from your inhuman methods of course."  
"The answer's not unexpected but what's inhuman with trying to save the human race from extinction?"  
"If you ask like that it's not usually worth the bother to answer. But since I have nothing better to do, I'll humour you. Me and my friends   
are much more human than you can even dream of being so if you'd want to save the human race from extinction, clean up at your own doorstep first.   
Oh, that's right. You did already but you missed. Too bad your people killed your daughter instead of you."  
  
"How dare you!" he yelled while hitting me on the mouth time and time again.  
"I loved my daughter" he continued and almost broke down crying.  
  
"Don't expect any sympathy from me" I said, with blood dripping from my mouth, "You made your bed, you lie in it."  
"Didn't you just said you were more human than me? Shouldn't you show some sympathy then?"  
"I do. But not for you. For your daughter, yes. You? No way. I only pray that your death will be slow and agonizing."  
"And you freaks wonder why the rest of us hates you? You just wants us dead."  
"No, we don't. Just the Hitler-wannabees."  
"I'm no Hitler as you try to imply. I just want the world to be safe."  
"That's what Hitler said too. Exchange jews for mutants and this travesty of the United States is what Hitler wanted for Germany. Versteht du mich?"  
"Travesty?"  
"Land of the free, remember? Of course, with all the amendmends you made to the constitution I'm not surprised you don't remember that tiny detail."  
"Travesty or not, you can't deny that the United States has been fundamentally changed becuase of you mutants?"  
"Like I said, were you born stupid?"  
"Just answer the question."  
"Fine. Yes, I can deny that. I deny that with all my heart. It has changed because of you and your allies like McTaggart and Cooper."  
"Please ellaborate."  
"Sure but I do wonder how you ever made it through childhood with this blatant stupidity. However, have you ever wondered why the United States and to a  
lesser extent Canada is the only place on Earth where there's no civil rights any more? Why the deepest recession of all times hits mainly here? Why the   
deathtoll here is the highest on Earth?"  
"And what's your answer to that?"  
"Because this country is the only country on Earth where mutants are not allowed to be productive members of society! Look at Europe. Look at Australia.   
Look at Asia. The prime minister of the United Kingdom is a mutant for crying out loud!"  
"And" he tries to start before I interrupt him.  
"If this had been a centure ago, the rest of the world would probably have declared us war by now." Then I couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "In a way they have too.   
It's getting harder and harder for the president to get the votes go his way in the UN after all."  
"How do you know all this?"  
"Oh, please. You can try to censor radio, television and the Internet all you want. It's not hard to get the information you want or need either way. Are  
you done asking now?"  
"For the time being."  
"Care to answer a few?"  
"I might. Shoot."  
  
"Where's my friends?"  
"Everyone but you escaped back to wherever you're hiding."  
"Don't lie to me. That robot caught Carol too."  
"Alright then. She's being held a couple of floors down."  
"How? She's superstrong."  
"I'm not about to give away any state secrets. Let's just say we have our methods."  
"And what will happen to her? And me?"  
"Ask the people coming here." he says pointing towards the door.  
  
I freeze in horror as I see three people dressed in what appears to be medical garb approaching, bringing an unconscious Carol with them. 


	16. Chapter 16

"And just what on Earth have you done to Carol?" I shouted.  
"Nothing much. Just given her a very powerful sedative. She should wake up anytime now." Kelly said before pushing   
a button in a remote control he was holding making something descend from the ceiling. The people that had brought Carol   
in rushed over there, securing Carol to it in some shackles.  
"You do realise that when she wakes up she will be able to break out of those as if they weren't there?"  
"No she won't. That alloy is stronger than adamantium and more than a match for Ms Danvers strength. Besides, her powers   
have been weakened considerably thanks to modern technology and my friends here." he said, pointing to the doctors.  
"Great. So you have your own personal Doctor Mengele too."  
  
When I said that, he once again came over and hit me. Quite hard too. I can't use my left eye. Blood's running from my mouth.  
"Oh, you feel so strong now don't you? Hitting someone that can't defend herself? I bet your momma and daughter would be so proud of you."  
"You won't be so cocky in a minute, I assure you."  
"Take your best shot. I'm not afraid of your goons or you. I was dead as soon as I got here."  
"True. But who said anything about retireing or transformation? What we want is information and neither of those options will give   
that to us. However, you will give us the information or your friend will suffer the consequences."  
  
He can't mean what I think he means, can he? "You mean that if I don't talk you'd torture her, is that it?"  
"Not really. We'd convince her it's in her best interest."  
"Freedom is slavery, War is piece, Ignorance is strength. Only a fanicer way of saying it."  
"So you've read Orwell. I'm impressed."  
"So would he be. His nightmare scenario is Eden reincarnated compared to what you've turned America into. But since you've made your own version   
of the Ministry of love here, I'd guess this is room 101."  
"In a manner of speaking."  
"So, excuse me if I'm curios. If her powers have been subdued what's the point of shackling her with an unbreakable alloy?"  
"The alloy wasn't made for her specifically. This room's equipped to deal with all kind of mutant powers except the kind Magneto had. But   
there are no more mutants with that power anymore, unless someone has manifested during the last 24 hours. But now you have run out of questions.   
The only options you have left is to answer."  
  
"First question. No, not question. A demand. I demand to know where your headquarters is. Both yours and Wolverines and before you try to bullshit  
me, I know you know where both are located."  
"So what if I do? You're not getting them from me."  
"I figured as much."  
  
He then turns to the doctors patiently waiting. "Wake her up."  
What they then did to Carol will forever plague me in my nightmares, if I get to live to have them. They strip her down to just her underwear  
then grabs a bucket of water which they empties upon her before grabbing some weird equipment which they holds against her stomach. With a flitch  
of a switch, a lot of direct current streams into her shocking her into an awoken state, screaming loudly in pain. They knew exactly how much  
to use without killing her. I'd guess some of her invulnerability is still intact or I would have thought she'd never survive something like  
that.  
  
"Ready to talk now?" he asks?  
"In your dreams."  
"And you said you freaks had sympathy? You don't even feel it for your own friends."  
"That's where you're wrong. But Carol knew what she was getting herself into when she joined us and she'd be disappointed in me if I gave up because she  
was in pain."  
"Fine, have it your way." he says before once again turning to the doctors. "Repeat."  
  
They do that four more times before Carol finally colappses into oblivion. I can see that she's not dead - not yet. She's breathing  
still.  
  
"We'll repeat this when she's conscious again. We don't want our precious Danvers to get killed after all. Not until we have our  
answers. And if you thought this was torture, to use your words, you haven't seen nothing yet." 


	17. Chapter 17

Times passes slowly. Kelly was right though - he had worse things in store for us. More psychological   
terror than physical however. We've been left alone in this room for an unknown amount of time. I think it's   
been for more than 24 hours but I really can't be sure of that. There's nothing here to give a clear indication of  
the passage of time so I have to go with my gut-feeling.A gut-feeling I don't dare to trust because our captors  
are doing their utmost to keep us dazed and confused even without them being in here. The lights go on and  
off with irregular intervals to keep us from getting a hold on the passage of time. At times it's light  
for what I think is hours, at other times the light's on for only a minute or two before it gets dark again.  
Darn confusing which of course is exactly what they  
want.  
  
No food or water to get our stamina down, not to mention breaking down our defenses. It's surprising what you'd  
do for a drop of water or just something to chew on when you've been denied it for long enough. Of course,  
food was scarce even outside but at least there were always some.  
  
Same thing with the pain they relish to inflict every now and then. Mostly by electricity with some equipment hidden   
in my 'bed' and Carols shackles. Never enough to knock us out but always enough to make us scream in agony, no  
matter how hard you try to suppress the scream. Sometimes by making the room incredible hot, other times by making it   
so freezing cold that Bobby would have been put to shame. And one time by having one guard come in cutting away at us   
with a dull knife. Only enough to make us bleed and give an pain that lasts longer than the time it took to inflict the wounds.  
Wouldn't surprise me if the wounds gets infected either.  
  
And they've made sure to deny us even the luxury of sleep. If the irregularity of the light wasn't enough to ensure that the   
loud and obnoxious noises they flood our ears with with the same irregularity makes it certain. To top things of, we've been  
given a shot of some drug or the other that just won't let sleep come. I'm literally ready to climb the walls but my restrains won't   
let me. All I can do is to stare up into the roof counting the cracks in the ceiling.  
  
I think Carol's slowly going insane. I don't know what they did to her before they dragged her in here but something awful I'm sure.   
I can see her clearly where she's shackled up. She's looking straight at me but not seeing. Just empty eyes. She has even tried to talk   
to me a couple of times depsite that but the words didn't make any sense. They didn't connect into a sentence of any sort.  
Just gibberish really. It's gotten to the point where I wish my hold on reality would slip. She's better of than I am right now and our   
situation won't improve.  
  
That's when I notice the door's opening again and Kelly and two of his Mengele friends enters the room.  
  
He leans over me, asking with a leer "You ready to talk now?" I'm just about ready to say yes when I  
surprises myself by just spitting in his face.  
  
"I take that as a no. You're strong-willed, I give you that. But there's always a way." He then turns to  
Mengele #1 saying, "Put Danvers to sleep. Not kill. Sleep." before turning to Mengele #2 "Strip her" pointing at me.  
  
The guy quickly removes all of my clothing and the other Menegele comes my way with Carol over his shoulder, unconscious.  
  
Kelly then adresses me again. "I know you've made quite some progress controlling your life-absorbing skin but this will  
take care of that." he says, before giving me a shot of something.  
  
"What was that?" I ask, dreading the answer.  
"Let's just call it the opposite of the suppressor equipment Danvers destroyed in Westchester. You no longer can control your mutation  
no matter how much you try. Let's just say that you're about to use your power on your friend there."  
  
Is he serious, I wonder before realising that he probably is. I mean, if they know how to take away or gifts why wouldn't they be able to  
amplify them?  
  
"NO! NO! Please! Don't do that!" I yell losing all composure I have left.  
"Then talk!"  
  
I'm ready to yield but I must have hesitated for too long because he just says "Very well then." before turning to the Menegeles.  
"Make sure there's as much skin-to-skin contact as possible. It will make the transfer more thorough and complete."  
  
The two of them approaches me as quick as it's possible when they have to drag Carol with them, lifting her up and onto me. And I'm completely  
helpless to stop them. I feel the once familiar pull start almost immediately. And true to Kelly's word, they make sure we touch eachother just   
about everywhere. And Kelly was right. I can't do a thing to stop the pull.  
  
The last thing I hear before I pass out is Kelly saying "When she wakes up, she's ours!" 


	18. Chapter 18

I slowly come to my senses again, after have been out for God knows for how long.  
Only that God wouldn't care. If he did, he wouldn't have made me a mutant in  
the first place and certainly not have allowed Robert Kelly to ever be born.  
That man is hellspawn I'm sure. Well, coming to my senses is relative.  
The world is just a confusing mess. There's so much of Carol in my mind I  
can't even begin to understand what parts of me is me or what parts comes from  
her. I had that trouble with Logan too at first, and David to a lesser extent and  
all the other peoples I've touched between the time my mutation manifested  
and the time I got it under control. But never like this. It's like she's taken  
up permanent residence in my brain.  
  
~I'm so sorry about that, Marie. I never meant this to happen.~  
Carol. In my head. Spooky.  
*What are you saying Carol? And where are you*  
~In your mind. The only place I'll be from now on~  
  
That's when I notice that Carol's body is just lying lifeless in a corner.  
*I killed you, didn't I?*  
~Yes, but don't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault.~  
*How can I not? If it wasn't for me, you'd still be alive!*  
~Put the blame where it's supposed to be. It's squarely at Kelly's feet. My death and many   
others. Still, nothing bad that comes without its ups. The ups in this case is that you're much   
more powerful than you were before. You've got all my powers for good now.~  
*You seem to not mind much that I killed you, my fault or not?*  
~No. You always did wonder why I always volunteered for the most dangerous missions. Well, now you know.~  
*I guess I do. You wanted to die but felt suicide was a cop-out?*  
~You got it.~  
  
I certainly do. When I now access Carols memories, I realise that what Kelly did to her when I didn't see   
her was what finally broke her. Not what he did in and of itself but together with the fact that she was once   
again at the mercy of a ruthless man. Something she had tried for so many years to suppress the memory of.   
The memory itself was almost enough to break her and the things Kelly and his people did was enough to break   
the back of the proverbial camel. The memories were faintly familiar though.  
  
*Carol?*  
~Yes?~  
*Did you ever meet Logan back when those men almost broke you*  
~Yes. We're both products of the Canadian Weapon-X project. And neither of us willingly.~  
*Why didn't you tell anyone?*  
~And accomplish what? It wouldn't help Logan during this state of war, probably only depress him as much as it depresses me.   
Today, it's just day-by-day survival that matters. Nothing else.~  
  
I gotta admit that she has a point. A distraction is the last thing Logan needs right now.  
  
*So, what do we do now?*  
~Gives Kelly a surprise when he comes to check on you.~  
*How?*  
~I'll show you when he shows up.~  
*Fair enough. But I can't control your powers, if that has something to do with it.*  
~I can. Which means you can if you just let instinct rule you.~  
  
I don't really know what to say to that so I just ask a question instead.  
*Why do you think Kelly did this? This permanent transfer I mean?*  
~I can only guess but I think he thought that my madness was going to bring you down. He didn't count on that you are stronger than he   
thought. You're very strong Marie, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. And that will be Kellys downfall.~  
*Thanks for the vote of confidence.*  
~You're welcome~  
  
We stay silent then until Kelly and his goons re-emerges.  
~Just stay silent. Look up in the ceiling with blank eyes. Don't let him know his plan hasn't worked.~  
*Got ya.*  
  
It's hard to play mad or even slightly mad but all those theater lessons back in Meridian back before my powers manifested finally pays off.   
I manage to fool Kelly and the two "doctors" that I'm as close as comatose as you can get so they let down their guards.  
A fatal mistake.  
  
That's when Carols instincts in how to use her powers comes into play. I just move my arms and legs ever so slightly and the restrainers just snaps,   
as if they were just yarn instead of the more sturdy leather tying me down. Kelly looks shocked. I bet he didn't figure I would keep Carols powers if   
I killed her with my powers. Only goes to show that his and the governments research regarding us muties may not be as deep penetrating  
as they like to think. I take a flying leap of the 'bed' and knocks the doctors unconsious by throwing them into a wall as easily as if I had only been   
squashing a bug beneath my shoe.  
  
I then grab Kelly by the collar of shirt, yanking him of the floor and then leaving the floor completely by flying through the wall and into the chilly night.   
Funny thing is, it didn't hurt one bit. Even Carol is surprised by that. It never worked like that for her I realise. She always felt every hit to her body   
even though she rarely got hurt by it. We don't have time to contemplate why that is though.  
  
"Let me down!" Kelly shouts.  
"As you wish" I reply, letting go of his collar 15 stories above the ground. 


	19. Chapter 19

I see Kelly fall towards his death and I thought I'd be glad to see that bastard die but for some reason I don't. Despite  
what I rather recently told Logan that we should try to kill Kelly and the other ones on top of the power pyramid it  
doesn't give me any sense of satisfaction now that Kelly is as good as dead. What was I thinking when I said that?  
No, I can't let him die. I'm not sure if that's me or Carol thinking it but I just can't let him. He most certainly  
deserves death but I'm no cold-blooded murderer.  
  
Quick! Gotta catch him and he's almost already a giant pizza on the sidewalk. I fly downwards as fast as I  
can and catches him just 3 stories above ground. Oooh! I'm not used to this. I'm getting airsick. Still,  
can't let Kelly see that.  
  
"Hope you enjoyed the flight."  
"You sick mutie! What was that for?"  
"Call it revenge, and a warning. Payback for your crimes against humanity is long since overdue and it's about  
to get started." I say while slowly lowering myself to the ground, not caring that there are people around that  
sees my powers. One of them at least. They're staring at us and it gets uncomfortable fast. That's when I realise  
I'm still nude after the forced absorbation thing. I'm sure as hell easy to spot now...a naked flying woman isn't  
something you see every day. "Rogue!" someone shouts. I turn against the voice and, well if it isn't Blob together with  
a man I don't recognize. But...he's not as large as usual.  
  
"Hey Blob. Lost some weight?" I say as we move away from the crowd that's starting to form.  
He laughs at that. "No, my friend Forge here made us some nifty equipment that can make us obvious mutants look normal.  
Good thing we've finally found you but where's Carol? And where's your clothes?"  
"She's dead. The bastard I'm holding here forced me to absorb her and he's gonna pay for that."  
Blob gets a homicidal look on his face and seems ready to rip Kelly apart, limb by limb.  
"Pay he will" he says "but all in good time. It will have to wait though. You're needed back at the shelter. Logan needs  
you, badly."  
"What!?? What's wrong with him?"  
"I don't know but I think he's in shock over your disappearance. He just wanders around aimlessly, not doing anything. Not  
even eating properly."  
  
It feels like I'm ready to faint. But can't afford to do that if Logan needs me.   
  
"I'm flying home right away. How long have I been missing? I sort of lost track of time."  
"8 days. We tell you more later okay? Just get home now."  
"In a heartbeat. You can get home by yourselves or have we drawn too much attention for that?"  
"We'll be fine. What about Kelly?"  
"I'm taking him with me. He can make a great hostage or information source." I say before leaping up into the sky again.  
  
I could get to like this flying thing when I get used to it. If it wasn't that I'd prefer Carol alive instead of me being able to fly  
and that I'm worried sick about Logan. I always thought he was stronger than that but I guess I was wrong. I reach the shelter  
in just a few minutes and almost flies right through the ground instead of opening the manhole to get down in my rush. I bump Kellys  
head into the edges in the process, knocking him out. I don't care.Hope he gets a concussion so he suffers at least a little for the time  
being.  
  
"Where's Logan?" I almost scream as soon as I reach the shelter while I'm tossing Kellys limp body onto one of the mattresses and tying him  
up as a precaution.   
  
A girl I don't recognize points to another mattress at the other side of the room. Ah, there he is. I get a large lump in my throat and am ready  
to cry and never stop when I see him. He has changed a lot during those eight days. He just lies flat on his back, staring into the roof. A lot  
like how Carol was when we were being tortured. But worse in a way. He's bloody everywhere, as if...no that can't be. Can it? I take a closer  
look. Yes, it is. He has repeatedly used his claws on his own body. The wounds heals almost immediatly of course but the evidence of the  
damage is still there. The dried blood. And his eyes...they're not devoid of life like Carols was. They're filled with a rage and a sense  
of loss I've never seen on him and prayed that I never would.  
  
I'm at a loss here. What can I do?  
  
"Logan?" I say, trying to make him notice me. Nothing. I try everything I can think of. Just holding him, talking to him, kissing him and  
shaking him. No response. Maybe he just needs time to notice my presence? So I move him over a bit so we both fits on the mattress  
then draping the blanket over us and I snuggle up to him with my head on his shoulder. I really don't believe in this idea but I have really  
no idea of what to do. If he can't or won't notice me how am I supposed to get through to him?  
  
I don't want to sleep. I need to be awake in case Logan finally notices me but I can't help it since I haven't had much sleep if any the  
last days. 'Hank' is the last thing on my mind before sleep overcomes me. 


	20. Chapter 20

I wake up just a few hours later with something heavy on me.I open my eyes and notices it's Logan   
lying on top of me, as naked as me caressing me everywhere and...hmmm...oh yes I could like that but   
I prefer sex to be mutual. Not him taking advantage of me being asleep like this.   
  
"Logan? What the hell do you think you're doing?" He's not answering. Just with a grunt and more  
caressing. Well, it would have been caressing if he had been gentle. A more proper term for what he is  
really doing is molesting. No, not that either. Sexual assault or rape. Of the more brutal variety.   
"Logan! Please let me go!" Still no answer but at least he heard me because he lifts his head from where   
it was and I get a look into his eyes and realize - it's not really Logan. His body, yes. But the rest  
of him isn't there. The Wolverine is completely in charge now but the sense of loss is still apparent   
in them together with the rage and now a lust that's not about to be abated either.  
  
I really love Logan but I won't let him do to this to me. Or to himself. If he ever gets back  
to his own self, which I won't give up hope on that he will, he will never forgive himself.  
  
But what can I do? Carols powers makes sure I won't be hurt and that I could get away easily  
but I might hurt him badly since I can't really control those powers yet. Carol is one of the  
few that would have a chance of hurting him so I'm at a loss here. I can't even let her take control   
of the powers because her presence in my mind has already diminished to next to nothing. Only the   
powers that remains.   
  
Ouch! I almost screams out when I realise the choice has been taken away from me. He's started to fuck me as   
if there's no tomorrow. With the intensity he's using it hurts badly despite the invulnerability like it did to  
Carol. The hurt's there but not the damage. I really can't push him away. He might fly right into the wall.  
  
But then I lose control when he starts to caress my cheeks and moving towards my breasts with his  
claws. That's not something I'm prepared to deal with and to be blunt, I panic and throws him of  
me. And to be true, he flies right into the faraway wall with a thud. "Logan!" I scream and rushes over  
to him. He's unconscious but at least he's alive. I carry him back to the bed and puts him under  
the blanket. As for me, I sit down next to him keeping a vigil for the rest of the night.  
  
When he wakes up again, I'm immediately on guard before he looks at me with surprise and much warmth  
in his eyes. "Marie? You back?"  
  
I don't know what to say but my tears starts to run down my cheeks. I couldn't stop them even if wanted  
to. "Marie? What's wrong?"   
"Nothing's wrong. I'm just glad you are back to your own self." I don't why though but maybe the shock  
of being thrown into the wall?  
"My own self?"  
"Yeah. You've been acting really strange the last couple of days, or at least that's what I'm told.  
And last night you almost hurt me when the Wolverine wouldn't be tamed anymore."  
  
Guilt. That's what's in his eyes.  
  
"I don't know what to say...except sorry. And forgive me."  
"You already are. Besides, you can't hurt me even if you tried."  
"Huh?"  
"When I was gone, Kelly forced me to absorb Carol. Completely. She's dead and I now have her powers."  
"Where's that fucking bastard! I'm sooo gonna kill him."  
"No, you're not. But he's here. Tied over there" I say pointing towards him "But I don't mind if you scare him  
shitless."  
He grins at that. "Sure thing. Even more fun than killing him."  
  
He dresses quickly, almost too quickly. Can't believe how he made such a fast recovery from the state he was in  
yesterday. Anyway, when he's dressed he walks over to Kelly and pins him to a wall.  
  
"Now, Mr Kelly, you're about to answer a few questions."  
"Give me a reason why."  
"You know what, I'll give you three.  
One. Because I say so." and one claw shoots out just to the left of Kellys throat.  
"Two. Because I have one hell of a temper." and another claw shoots out to the right side of Kellys throat.  
"Two and a half. You don't want to hear reason 3." and the third claw goes out halfway, touching Kellys throat.  
  
I've never seen anyone as afraid as Kelly at that moment.He was so afraid of Logan that he even wet his pants.  
"Fine, fine!" he screams in fear, "I will answer the damn questions!"  
  
Logan withdraws the claws and lets go of Kelly, who immediately falls down into a sobbing heap on the floor. "pleasedon'tkillme  
pleasedon'tkillmepleasedon'tkillmepleasedon'tkillmepleasedon'tkillme" he repats over and over again in a low voice filled with terror. 


	21. Chapter 21

"That went well" Logan says as he walks away from Kelly.  
"You certainly knows how to be intimidating when you wants to be but out of curiosity, what answers did you want answered?"  
"None. I only wanted to scare the living daylights out of him."  
  
I can only laugh at that. Because I realise what he means in what he doesn't say. It doesn't matter what questions  
we might get out of Kelly. Not anymore. It wouldn't change a thing. We'd still be outlaws. Still be fair game.  
Still be shunned by the rest of society. Still have to watch our backs at all times.  
  
Probably even more so if we managed to get some "state secrets" out of Kelly. We'd be considered even more of a threat than we   
are now, if such a thing is possible, if we managed to do that. So what does that leave us? In the same spot as before.  
  
"Logan? What do we do now?"  
"Honestly? I don't really know except for one thing."  
"Which is?"  
"It's getting too dangerous to have two separate teams. This was a damn close call. It would have been the same even with just  
one team but at least some people wouldn't have to jeopardise themselves just as errand-runners. We really do need to  
concentrate our resources and I think this place is the one we should abandon."  
"Yeah, I agree. But I also think that we've got to stop hiding. The cops and everyone else has us at an disadvantage at all  
times because of that. It's time we turn the tables so to speak."  
"And how do you suggest we do that?"  
"Don't know yet. Just a gut feeling I have. You know, trust your instincts."  
  
Logan chuckles at that. "I always knew you'd ram that down my throat some day. But I do trust your instincts. I'm only not so  
sure I trust myself anymore."  
"What do you mean?"  
"I broke down when you went missing. What will stop me from doing that again if the worst comes to worst?"  
"I don't know. Wish I did but I don't. We'll just have to do as we've always done I guess. Living day by day."  
"Have I mentioned that I love your level-headedness lately? You're so much stronger than I ever could hope to be."  
"Don't be silly. If I am, it's because of you. That's what kept me from cracking when I was tortured."  
  
Logan doesn't answer. Not in words but his looks tells me everything.If looks could kill, Kelly would be a goner by now. Logan   
isn't one to forgive or forget easily. Especially when it's someone of his family that's being threatened or hurt. If he hadn't   
hated Kelly with every fibre of his being before he would now. But I can also see that he loves that he, in a roundabout sort of way,   
could give me the strength needed to survive.  
  
He finally gathers enough strength to talk again. "Let's forget about more plans until we've made our two teams into one shall we? One  
thing at a time."  
"Good idea."  
"So, to start. Is your shelter big enough to hold both teams?"  
"Yes. Barely but yes. It will do for a time at least."  
"Good. Then let's get things moving. I fix things here, you head back to yours and makes sure everything's set up there and we'll  
rendezvous there as soon as possible. Sound okay?"  
"Yes." I say and gives him directions.  
  
When I get ready to leave Logan shouts at me.  
"Marie?"  
"Yes?"  
"Two things. First, you might want some new clothes."  
  
Shit! With all that has happened since I escaped I sort of forgot that I left my clothes in the torture chamber.  
  
"You have any left?"  
"Yeah." he says, rummaging through a box. "I don't think they will fit perfectly but that doesn't matter much" he says before tossing me  
a pair of jeans and a sweater.  
I dress myself and ask "What was number 2?"  
"Bring Kelly with you. If he stays here I'm sure I will kill him and I don't want to stoop to his level. Of course, he will eventually  
pay for his crimes and a good start is to make him suffer the same way he's made most mutants suffer. He is about to learn that you don't piss  
members of Homo Superior off without paying the price." 


	22. Chapter 22

Marie slowly and very cautiously made her way back towards  
"her" hideout and took several detours along the way. She  
also made sure that her pace was no faster than what an  
ordinary human easily could manage, and certainly no flying  
even if she would have loved to. It slowed her down considerably  
but then again - that was the whole point of it. They all  
were dancing on the edge of a very sharp knife with no  
safety nets to catch them as it was. Definately no need  
to make an already grim situation worse by getting caught  
or retired now when Logan's soon to embark on an exodus  
with 50+ other mutants. Wouldn't do anyone any good.  
And to make matters even worse still, she couldn't afford  
to get caught with Kelly in tow.  
  
The slow pace also gave her much needed time to think  
things through, once she had found a good place to hide  
Kelly away so he wouldn't be a distraction and a danger  
less to worry about. "No chance he'll be able to escape from there"   
she thought to herself while she tied him up and locked him up. Out  
of sight, out of mind. She also wondered how in hell she would, or perhaps   
should, break the news of everything to Hank.  
  
Which of course was a third reason why she didn't brought  
Kelly back to the shelter. Not now. Not yet.  
Everyone there needed to know about it before she'd bring  
him there or Kelly would be dead very soon. Some, if not  
all, of her friends there would be only too eager to  
kill him in an act of revenge. No, kill is too weak a  
word. Slaughter with a touch of torture and grim satisfaction  
in doing so would be much closer to the mark. And he still,  
however unlikely, might be found useful.  
  
Hank would most certainly grieve over Carol and disapprove  
of everything else, no doubt about it. The kidnapping of  
Kelly and the joining of the teams not to mention her  
idea of trying to turn the tables. Not that she knew how  
to do that, not even the beginning of an idea, only that  
it needed to be done. Hank would never see it that way.  
He would consider it taking unneccessary risks with small  
and uncertain gains. It wasn't the first time that Marie  
thought that Hanks background as a scientist is what  
made him calculate everything down to the last dot if  
possible. Admirable and necessary in science but could cost  
them dearly when it comes to matters of life and death.  
  
When she finally found herself back at the shelter she was  
in no way closer to a satisfactory solution.  
"Better grab the bull by the horns, I guess" she thought to  
herself and set of to find Hank. Which, naturally enough,  
didn't take long. Her first hunch turned out to be correct.  
He was as always in his make-do lab, doing this and that  
in research with the little equipment he had and was  
patching up a patient or two at the same time.  
  
He looked up when he sensed her coming and immediately  
shone up and gave a frown at the same time.  
  
"It's always a pleasure to see you Marie, especially after  
such a lengthy absence. Lenghty is relative of course,  
like everything. Something Einstein never said, despite  
rumours to the contrary. But what bad news do you bring  
that you hesistate to tell me?"  
"You've always had this uncanny knack to see right through me,  
Hank" she answered. She knew she needed to tell Hank right  
the way things were but she still was reluctant and  
she didn't know why. Next to Logan Hank was the one  
closest to her and they both had always felt like there  
was nothing they couldn't tell eachother. It was one  
of the most comfortable friendships she'd ever felt  
she'd been in and had felt so proud and happy to be  
a part of.  
  
And still she hesitated and stumbled over the words.  
"Hank, I" she began and stopped. She almost began  
to cry but said sternly to herself "Get a grip  
Marie. Hank's your friend, teammate and confidante.  
He needs to hear this". She fought internally for  
some time with Hank patiently waiting.  
  
Eventually Marie found the strength to spill it all.  
How the attack had gone wrong, the Sentinel kidnapping  
her and Carol, the torture, the forced absorbation,  
how she had almost killed Kelly but just brought him  
with her, the fact that many mutants still had been freed.  
Everything except Logans breakdown and how he had  
unwillingly raped her. No matter how good a friendship  
they had, she didn't felt comfortable talking about that.  
Afraid that Hank would take it the wrong way.  
  
During her talk she noticed that Hanks eyes got more and  
more watery and when she was done talking he just couldn't  
stop crying and was muttering "Carol, no" so silent she could  
barely hear it. She knew he wasn't oblivious to her own  
suffering but she also knew what Hank had felt towards  
Carol. She had been one of his closest friends and long  
before, before the Mutant Registration Act had been enacted  
they had been more. It was only recently they had met again  
only for her to be taken away from him again. She also  
knew that it had especially warmed his heart that Carol  
as a human was more than willing to put her life at sake  
for the cause of mutants and their all forgotten human rights.  
  
Something must have snapped in Hank at that because when he  
had gained more control over his emotions and looked up  
again, the familiar look of his eyes was gone. The gentle,  
warm-hearted, fun blue giant was pushed to the back of  
his conscience, voluntarily or not. Now everything  
Marie could see in his usually kind eyes was hate, anger  
and coldness. His warm and ever present smile was gone  
too and had been replaced with a grin with his pointy  
fangs visible which was rarely the case.  
  
If she didn't know Hank as well as she did she would have  
been terrified, maybe even thinking that all that hatred  
was directed at her. The "Blame the messenger" kind of thing.  
If she had fleetingly thought that, it was soon removed when  
Hank spoke.  
  
"Damn the mutie-haters to hell and back! They're so gonna pay  
for this. This means war! Now they just have to make way for  
Homo Superior."  
  
Marie didn't know what frightened her most. The thought that  
Hank maybe was right and that was the only way to go or that  
Hank of all people was acting like that? Or maybe the thought  
"Why didn't we fight back sooner?"  
  
Marie was suddenly feeling very afraid. Both of the way things  
were going steadily downhill and her own thoughts regarding the whole  
deal. 


	23. Chapter 23

Marie could sympathize with Hank from the very bottom of her heart in wanting to   
get even. But the very same heart also insisted in saying "No. You don't kill". At   
times having a conscience could be a real drag, especially when it was right! Killing   
is not the solution. In self-defense, yes. But not in cold blood. Some other solution   
would have to be found. But what one?  
  
She couldn't think of one so one thing at a time. Priority one would now have to be   
"Calm Hank down" and preferably before he's doing something rash.  
  
"Hank, please. Calm down" she said while approaching him.  
"No! Don't get near me."  
"Why? I don't understand Hank. You're my friend and I hate to see you like this."  
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. And I know you didn't mean to kill Carol but right now I'd rather   
not see you."  
  
That hurt, Marie thought but she could see why Hank would feel that way. It was after all rather   
like she thought of it herself truth to be told. She too knew it wasn't her fault but that didn't   
alleviate the feelings of guilt one iota. Almost the contrary in fact. The ever-present thoughts   
of what-if reared their ugly heads all too often. She knew it was irrational of her to feel that way  
but that's the way it was.   
  
"I know Hank, belive me. And you know that if I could do anything to make you feel better I would."  
"Yeah" Hank said, voice almost but not quite failing him.  
"You know, I just leave you for a few hours meeting up with Logan and his friends and bring Kelly back here.  
That way you get some time to try to calm down andrelax a bit. That okay?"  
"Yeah." Hank answered, his voice getting a bit stronger and when he looked up at her, she could swear she could see  
that he indeed was very thankful to her for a bit of solitude. Maybe that's exactly what he needs right now,  
she thought.  
  
"See you later then, Hank" she said, strolling away.  
"Marie?"  
"Yes?"  
"Thank you."  
"What for?"  
"For not sugar-coating things for me and well, just being you."  
"Don't mention it. I'd do it again and again if that's what you need."  
"I know."  
  
Marie then quickly left the shelter. Quickly because she felt she was too close to tears for comfort and right  
now she didn't want anyone to see her that vulnerable. There was at times like this she missed old "Fearless  
Leader" the most. He had after all been a natural leader. She wasn't but had been forced to be one because of  
things out of her control. Some people had been less apt than her as being the leader, others more. But the  
ones more apt had in all cases had things they were even more apt at and valuable for. Like Hank - he  
would have been an excellent leader but his expertise in medicine was more important, both to himself and the  
team. Then there was Shaw and Emma. Both excellent leaders but even better at surveilance and undercover work. So  
Marie had more or less got her "job" by default. She knew she had become quite a good leader too and had  
to smile at that since before her mutation forced her to first be on the run and later joining the X-men, she  
had been anything but. But she figured that the phrase "It's amazing what you can do when you have to"  
was true. Normally, she didn't mind having become a leader but now it was getting to be a bit too much. Everyone  
has their limits after all.  
  
She forced herself to not dwell on it and instead concentrated in finding Logan. It would be hard but she knew   
approximately where he would be by now which made it much easier and found him and his team in about an hour.  
  
"Is it really wise coming to meet us like this?" Logan asked.  
"Maybe not, but I had to. Hank needed some time alone to assimilate everything that has happened recently. You knew   
that he and Carol were old lovers?"  
"No. He's not giving you a hard time about it?"  
"No, not really. He's just hurting right now. He will come around again I'm sure."  
"Good. Kelly's in the shelter?"  
"No. I have stowed away elsewhere for the time but I'm about to go fetch him when we're back."  
"Nah. Go get him now and we'll meet at the shelter."  
"Sure, why not. See you soon."  
  
With that Marie left to get Kelly while watching Logans troups move towards the shelter in as much stealth as possible.   
Good thing Forge's with them. She had no idea where he had gotten as much raw material as he had to build all those image   
inducers but they came in real handy now. A few of the most obvious mutants had none so apparently he hadn't gotten enough.   
Those mutants, however, were mostly shield from view by the crowd around them.  
  
An hour or two later, the shelter was filled to the brim with mutants.Marie hadn't been wrong when she had said it was going to fit them  
all just barely. But it worked.  
  
A few days passed, letting everyone get adjusted to their new surroundings and letting everyone get to know eachother a bit  
more than just being people living in the same shelter. Especially important for those wanting to be an active member  
of the fighting team. They all had to know eachothers strengths and weaknessess in order to be as effective as possible.  
  
But that could only be allowed for a limited time. Time was a luxury they didn't have and four days after Logans arrival  
a small meeting was held between Logan, Marie, Hank, Forge and Blob where they discussed where to take things from there.  
  
One thing they agreed on unanimously was that the status quo had to be broken. It wasn't healthy and it was only a matter of time  
before the walls would crumble down around them if something wasn't done. Much to Marie's surprise, Hank was not opposing  
a more pro-active stance anymore. She assumed that it was because he now had a more personal experience in his luggage  
to just what the anti-mutant laws could cause. Maybe Carol would still have been alive if they hadn't been hiding for so long?   
None could tell but it was a feeling they all shared that it wasn't out of the question.  
  
The meeting dragged on for some time before it was decided what should be their first mission as one team. Trasks factories  
needed to be knocked out. They just couldn't take the risk of more Sentinels being built not to mention that the methods  
used in building them was just plain inhuman.  
  
They all felt better than they had done in a long time after the meeting. Sure, they hadn't been able to come up with a  
good plan how to accomplish what they wanted yet but they were all aiming for a specific task now instead of just  
trying to stay alive.  
  
And that was a world of a difference. 


	24. Chapter 24

The days passed slowly and the more restless ones among the mutants were literally quite   
ready to climb the walls and one or two were even physically able to do so much  
to the amusement of Marie and Logan. One of the few things able to still make them smile.   
Everything else was pretty much doom and gloom.  
  
They still hadn't come up with a good plan on how to knock out Trasks factory or factories as the case  
may be and it was becoming a sore spot for everyone knowing about the plan. They felt so damn helpless  
and the more time passed the more smug Kelly looked despite his predicament. As if he knew something they  
didn't which Marie had to admit was all too probable.  
  
The only thing resembling a plan they had was to use Shaw since he was thought to be Trasks business-partner  
but that was something both Hank and Marie was very reluctant to do except as the very last resort. It  
was too valuable to have an agent inside the midst of the enemy camp to risk him without giving other  
options a very thorough examination first. And after what had happened to Carol risking another friends life  
was the last thing they wanted even though they knew that eventually they might have to.  
  
But as Forge kept telling them, not that he needed to, they were running out of time. It had been almost two  
weeks since the first Sentinel made its appearance and more were most certainly being manufactured. If they  
didn't do something very soon it would be too late.  
  
The breaking point as far as Marie was concerned was when she noticed how many people had began to shy away from  
leaving the bunker for even as short a time as five minutes even when they could use a image inducer. That  
went to the people not immediately recognisable as mutants too, like Forge and much to Maries dismay she  
knew she was reluctant too.  
  
"This will not do" she said to Hank, "We can't hide away in here for all eternity. What kind of life is this when  
all we do is cower inside her like frightened mice?"  
"What do you suggest then?"  
"This may sound foolish and suicidal but I really do think that we have no option but a full-scale attack on one  
factory. We do now where one is and we have enough people here to make it work if we put enough thought behind the  
strategy first."  
"As much as I'd love to make that happen you're forgetting one thing."  
"Which is?"  
"Look around you. How many of those do you think are capable of participating in an attack?"  
"All of them, given enough incentive and motivation. Which is where you come in."  
"Me?" Hank was beyond surprised.  
"Yeah. You. You're a terrific speaker and could make us see the light if you put your heart into it. The rest of  
us that is. Not you."  
"Why?"  
"Don't get me wrong Hank. I'd love to have you by my side in a fight but quite frankly you're too valuable as a doctor  
to make the risk that you might be killed or injured justifiable."  
"You're quite right however it hurts to admit that I'm not able to fight in this. I guess I will have to get my  
revenge in another way."  
"That's the Hank I know" Marie said, giving the blue-furred guy a loving hug. "You'll deliver the speach then?"  
"Yeah, on one condition."  
"Which is?"  
"Kelly must be present to hear it."  
"Wouldn't have it another way."  
  
  
An hour or two passed before a sort of formal meeting between all the mutants there could be arranged. Most of the time   
passed because of Hanks preparations to deliver the speach so none could be unaffected of it. Kelly was tied down in a   
corner of what was commonly known as the "living room", the only room in the bunker large enough to house everyone. He was   
also gagged so he couldn't intrude. He just had to listen.  
  
When everyone was present, Hank climbed up upon a chair and started to  
talk.  
  
"My friends,  
  
The time has come for us to make a stand. Many if not all of us have personally  
been affected by this travesty called "The mutant registration act". The law  
that makes us all fair game to kill. We've lived in constant fear and hiding  
away like prey for far too long. Now it's time to make the flatlines  
fear us for a change. Not out of revenge, but out of justice and the  
inalienable rights we have as human beings. Both the United Nations human rights decree  
and the USA 's bill of rights says so. The United Nations decree still holds but  
they're too afraid to intervene here. As for the bill of rights, someone once said  
"7 out of 10 rights haven't been sold yet! Contact your congressman for  
details how *you* can buy one today!". Apparently they went to Mr Kelly and now there   
are no rights left."  
  
Hank stopped for a moment and saw that they were all listening intently and  
had no wish to be left out. The speech in and of itself might not have been the  
most inspired ever given but together with Hanks undeniable charisma it did  
the trick.  
  
"I won't try to fool anyone of you. What I am about to propse that we do is  
dangerous. Very dangerous. None of us may come back alive again. But then  
again, is this way truly living? There's more to life than just breathing,  
eating a little, sleeping a little and be in constant fear. I don't know  
about you but I want more out of life than that and if I can't have that  
I'd rather die fighting.  
  
If this should be our final stand we will stand together with pride. We will  
honour the past and fight to the last. It will be a good way to die!  
  
It matters not if the cause is lost and we can not stop the tide. We will  
fight to the end and then fight again. It will be a good way to die!  
  
The time is short and our chances grim but I will not give in to fear, I can  
face death with an open heart if I know we're doing our best.  
  
This moment will live on through time and if anyone ever asks why, we did  
not fall our our knees. We found a good way to die if it comes to that! Which of   
course we will do our utmost to prevent."  
  
Hank was met with a very round of applause and cheers. A bit to his own  
surprise given the grim reality of his speech. "Maybe I haven't given myself enough  
credit as a speaker" he thought silently before looking over to Kelly and  
saw pure terror in the mans eye. He went over to the Kelly and removed the gag.  
  
Kelly asked him with a trembling voice, "Did you really mean what you said?"  
"You bet your ass I did. Normally, I'm a peaceful man Mr Kelly. As is all of  
us here. None of us wants this but you and the other criminals responsible  
for this gives us no choice."  
"Criminals? We're only doing what the people and the President wants us to do."  
"Perhaps but that's what the officers of SS said during the Nurnberg trials too.  
They still got executed because of crimes against humanity."  
"I'm getting sick of being accused of being a nazi."  
"Stop acting like one then, you moron."  
"I'm just trying to stop terrorists."  
"What terrorists?"  
"You for starters."  
"Oh please. If we're terrorists it's all your fault. Neither you or me would  
be here if it hadn't been for your twisted ideas of what's acceptable to be  
born as. I would have been most happy to stay at my work as a biochemist  
but you made it impossible. Is it any wonder the mutant community hates you?  
Every single one in here has lost a friend, a husband or someone else close  
to them because of you. If you belive in God, Mr Kelly, I suggest you  
start praying. Not that I think it would do you any good since I can't think  
of any more suitable candidate than you to go to the warmer place.  
  
As for terrorists, you do realise that that's usually what the large army calls the smaller one?"  
"Maybe so but even if that's true, what can you do? And are you really ready to die for your cause?"  
"What do I have to lose? Either I fight for my rights or get 'retired'. Either way my life is in great danger.   
But if I choose door number one, I just might make a difference. Are you ready to die for your cause?"  
  
Kelly didn't answer. "Thought not. It's much easier to be brave when you feel you are on top. Things are different now,   
aren't they?"  
"Not really. I don't know what you've planned to do but laws don't change over night."  
"No, they don't. But your pal Adolf had one idea of how to change laws. Perhaps not the best one but it can work."  
"What idea?"  
"Replacing the government with one of our own."  
  
The terror in Kellys eyes became even more evident at that and he became as  
pale as a skeleton. The beast infront of him couldn't really mean that?  
  
Or could he? 


	25. Chapter 25

It was some time after Hank had left Kelly that he realised that he hadn't actually gotten   
around to tell anyone exactly what he was going to propose more than that it would most  
likely be extremely dangerous. "I guess I got a little carried away" he mused while making   
himself outdoors. Without an image inducer. He didn't particulary felt suicidal but he  
felt that he ought to show the others that he wasn't afraid."Who am I kidding?" he though,   
"I'm almost shaking in my boots, if I was wearing any." Of course, with the bunker  
being located where it was it wasn't a great risk that a member of the FOH or any random   
mutie-killer would be around but there was no getting round the fact that there might.  
Hank was adamant in his resolve to be outdoors even for just a few moments though and nothing   
would make him budge.  
  
At least that's what he thought until he was outside. What he saw made him almost bolt indoors immediately  
again. But not out of fear. Out of embarressment.  
  
Logan and Marie was out there, making out like there was no tomorrow. Which it might not, for them at least,  
however much it pained Hank to admit it even to himself.  
  
If they had just been kissing it wouldn't have been a problem, Hank thought, but they were practically making   
love with their clothes on the way they were clinging to eachother and what their hands were doing. Hank, the   
gentle kind of guy that he is, did his best to get back inside without getting noticed but he  
had been so surprised almost walking into them like he did that he stumbled onto something and couldn't help but   
cursing out breaking Logans and Maries tender moment.  
  
They immediately noticed and turned towards him.  
"Sorry guys, I didn't mean to intrude."  
"We know you didn't Hank" Marie said and Logan just nodded to show that he agreed before Marie continued   
  
"What brings you out here Hank?"  
"Just my way of trying to cope with what will soon happen I guess. I need to keep my courage up and I figured that after  
my speech I had to show the other ones that a tell-tale mutant like my humble self wasn't afraid to go outside."  
"Hmph. You're more brave than most people I've met", Logan said, "and if you're afraid you're gonna crack...well,  
let's just say that you have nothing to be afraid of."  
  
Hank knew that coming from Logan, that's the best compliment anyone that not goes by the name Marie and Rogue could  
ever hope of get. Which of course only made him more embarrassed and he couldn't think of a good answer so  
he just nodded in acknowledgement.  
  
Logan continued with "I couldn't help overhearing what you said to Kelly. Are you really suggesting we overthrow  
the government?"  
"No, not really. I was merely trying to get under his skin so to speak. I know only too well that we're too few to  
have a shot of doing that. We're going to need a whole lot of luck just bringing down Stark's factory. Don't get me  
wrong, I'd love to have a more mutant-friendly government but that's not in our powers to accomplish."  
"Afraid I have to agree. So what do we do?"  
"I'm sure Marie's told you we came to an agreement of a full-scale attack."  
"Yeah, but more than that? I want details."  
"I don't have any. Yet. We don't know enough of the facilities I'm afraid. We know where it's located and that it's not  
heavily guarded. They rely on obscurity more than armed forces. And I think we can count on that it's loaded with those mutant  
power suppressors. That's about all we know."  
"Ah, but that gives me an idea."  
"What?" came from both Hank and Marie.  
"Well, we do have enough manpower to strike it down if it wasn't for those suppressors wouldn't you agree?"  
"I would think so, yes."  
"Let's go talk to Forge then."  
  
Forge was more than thrilled to hear of Logans idea. It was an idea he had been toying with for quite some time and he had a   
rather good idea of how to go about it and he just loved that someone else could appreciate what he could do. He was also ecstatic  
that the people here trusted him, despite that he had been forced to make some devices for the Sentinels. "You got yourself a second  
chance here Forge! Don't mess it up" he thought to himself before answering Logan.  
  
"Yes, it's probably possible to make a device that counteracts the suppressors. In fact, we got most of the needed material here  
already in form of the image inducers. They just have to be modified in certain key areas though. However, some more components  
will be needed. No rare things so most electronic shops should have 'em but maybe not in the amounts we need. But I have to warn you right  
away. There's no guarantee it will work. And even if it does, it will be dangerous to use for prolonged amounts of time and it does drain its  
energysource rather rapidly. So whenever it's going to be used, make sure you have an escape-plan planned ahead or you'll probably be killed."  
"One thing at a time" Logan said, "First we get the components needed. Forge, that's something you should do. You're the one that knows one electronic   
component from the other. How much money would be needed for this?"  
"For everyone here?"  
"Yes."  
Forge made some quick calculations before answering "At least $6000."  
"Damn. Too much. And I had hoped we could have done this without drawing attention. We might still but now we'll have to steal the  
components hoping no one will notice. You're ready to go into town Forge?"  
"Sure, but not by myself."  
"Of course not. Blob, Longshot and Allison will go with you. You as the expert, Blob as bodyguard, Allison as the offensive force if that will   
be needed and Longshot as the thief."  
"All areas covered, eh?"  
"That's the plan. Now get moving!" 


	26. Chapter 26

The four mutants did do just that - got moving. Apart from Blob they all could pass as normal human beings  
or flatscans as the more scornful term was among the mutant community. The mutants weren't immune to  
fits of racism or prejudices either, and who could blame them Forge thought. "It's not like anyone  
ever cared about us in more than being happy when we gets retired. No wonder resentment is growing."  
He most certainly didn't like it but he could very well understand where it came from. Even before he  
was aware that he was a mutant he had known firsthand how ugly human bigotry could become given the slightest  
opportunity. For something as basic as the color of ones skin or ones religious beliefs. No, life had never been  
easy for Forge. Born as a Cherokee and deeply believing in his tribes ancient traditions and then to really make  
things interesting fate decided he should be born as a mutant as well.  
  
His ancestors may or may not condone his recent actions but at this time he couldn't care less about that. For the time   
being he was only interested in making amends for past crimes, unwilling crimes but still, and making life easier for his   
adopted tribe. If that would make him perish in the process it was a small price to pay. Or that was what he tried to tell   
himself at any rate. Not entirely successful but not a complete and utter failure either.  
  
He didn't know his companions all that much. He knew what Blob was capable of but that was about it. So he tried to determine   
what the others capabilities were and there he had more success. Allison, also known as Dazzler, could convert sounds to light   
and making it into deadly beams of light in the process. Beams she could shoot out at will from her fingertips. Yeah, she could   
sure be a good offensive force but both she and Forge prayed to different Gods it wouldn't come to that. Longshot, her husband,   
was in essence luck incarnated. He wasn't a thief by trade but his mutant power made it certain that if he would have chosen to be,   
he would have been the best thief throughout times. Much better than the legendary Gambit and the recently retired Storm. "No,   
don't go there Forge. They're dead. Dwelling on the past and what-ifs will only bring you misery". he chastised himself.  
  
"You guys ready?"  
"As ready as we will ever be." the communal voice answered.  
  
It was as dark as it was ever likely to become in this part of town so there was no point in waiting for a better opportunity.   
Longshots luck made it possible for them to pick the locks to the first available electronic shops without setting of a bunch of alarms.   
Forge quickly but efficiently went through all the different drawers and boxes strewn about the shop and the small stockroom, and just as   
quickly realised it hadn't enough of the needed components. He wasn't at all surprised. The components were hardly rare but the amount   
they needed was far more than what one ordinary shop would ever keep in stock at any given time. The only places there were bound to be enough   
were at places like the factories of IBM, Apple Philips or Sony. Not just any ordinary reseller.  
  
"We got one third of what we need. Let's hit the next place."  
  
Place number two was not as well equipped as the first and had barely enough to make it up to half of what they needed.  
  
Place number three however was a goldmine. It had a lot of components and not only of what Forge needed for the anti-mutant suppressor  
device but for things beyond that even. Not even Forge could guess what some of the componets could be useful for but he wasn't about to question   
that kind of good luck. And he didn't even think Longshot was who had brought it on him. From what the guy had told him his luck didn't work in exactly   
that way. It was more of knowing where his opponents weak spots were located and how to avoid getting into a trap. Not in chosing the best place to steal   
or loot.  
  
Which showed when they left the store. Just outside the store there was a large and imposing man standing with the "Mutant hunter" emblem on his right arm.  
That wasn't what was intimidating about him though since they all knew that emblem by heart and also knew that it would only be a matter of time until a  
mutant hunter would find them. The intimidating part was that he was entirely made out of steeel - quite literally - and had no sense of soul evident in  
his eyes.  
  
"Who's that?" Longshot whispered, fear evident in his voice.  
"Colossus. A former X-man, transformed into a mutant hunter by our dear Mr Kelly." Blob answered while the former gentle Piotr Rasputin was  
slowly but surely advancing towards them.  
  
"Get out of here" Dazzler shouted, "I'm the only one here capable of taking him out."  
  
Apart from Longshot, the others took her words for it since they all too well knew that Colossus were out of their league. Longshot knew that too but he   
had no intention of letting his wife taking on this large man all on herself.  
  
Afterwards, Forge cursed himself not dragging Longshot with him. Colossus was way too strong and Longshots luck failed him for once. If it was because   
he was too worried about his wifes well-being or not, no one knows and will likely never know. As soon as Colossus was in close enough proximity to Longshot to   
grab him however, he did and snapped the poor guys neck as easily as anyone else would be able to break a straw of grass. Longshot died almost immediately making  
Dazzler lose what cool she had. Every ounce of stored energy she had in her body she unleashed on Colossus, almost making the armed skin he had to melt away.   
It didn't but she managed the next best thing. Colossus was exhausted after that onslaught of pure energy and couldn't maintain his steel-form any longer and   
reverted back to his human self. Blob took the opportunity and knocked him unconscious and was almost ready to kill him in cold blood before Forge stopped him.  
  
"Don't. Let's take him back to the shelter. This is as good an opportunity we will ever have of getting to know how Kelly's transformed some well-meaning people,  
and hopefully breaking the transformation as well."  
  
Blob realised the truth in Forges' words and stopped the killing blow. "I hope you're right about this my friend. Otherwise, we have more enemies amongst us that   
we can handle."  
  
"So do I. So do I." 


	27. Chapter 27

Forge and his companions made it back to the shelter as fast as they could, given that   
they had to bring an unconscious Piotr Rasputin and a dead Longshot with them. Which translates   
to not fast at all or even painfully slow. They couldn't very well walk to the shelter  
like that or they'd be spotted almost immediately so they took to hiding in shadows and basically   
doing everything they could to avoid detection while looking for a car large enough to fit them all.   
Not an easy task given Blobs impressive size but at the time it didn't seem like a good idea to split  
up.  
  
After a while they came across a mini-bus which was of the required size even if just barely. It wasn't   
in the best of conditions so they weren't even sure it would hold together the entire journey but the conditions  
weren't of the kind where you can afford to be picky. Forge hotwired the thing and they were on their way. Blob   
weren't too comfortable even in a vehicle of that size but he didn't complain. For once, he had long  
since accepted that his size didn't exactly made travelling comfortable. And number two it would have been most   
inappropiate to complain over the lack of comfort when a team member just had been killed and he most certainly   
didn't want to upset Allison more. She had been so deeply hurt by this already he didn't want to add to it by sounding  
like he didn't care that her husband had got killed. He had really liked that guy for the short amount of time he had known   
him but he had never been good with words so he didn't know how to give Allison his condolanses. Which hurt. He wanted to   
be there for her like for everyone else when they lost a loved one but he just didn't know how. So instead he just remained  
silent.  
  
To the surprise of everyone, the car lasted the entire journey and they entered the shelter once again. Forge was about to get his   
hands full of work and Blob didn't exactly fit behind the wheel of the car which left him only one option. That girl there is as good   
as any he thought while trying to remember her name. Ah yes. That's it. And she looks human too.  
  
"Tabitha?"  
"Yes?"  
"There's a small bus outside here. Could you please drive it far from here and dump it so it can't be tracked here?"  
"Sure Fred."  
"Thanks."  
  
Tabitha left and Blob went to see Forge, Logan and Rogue. A very pissed of Logan it turned out to be.  
  
"Are you guys out of your fucking minds! That's Colossus you brought with you. Do I really have to tell you how dangerous  
he can be?"  
"No" Forge answered "but for now he is harmless. He's both unconscious and in his human form."  
"For now. But for how long? And what's the purpose of bringing him here?"  
"If you make sure he stays unconscious for an hour or two, he will never be a danger anymore."  
"What? Are you gonna kill him? If so, you could have done that downtown."  
"No, I won't kill him. I will just use what we have here to make sure he can't turn to steel. If I can make an anti-suppressor I   
sure can mimic the suppressors used at the camp you freed me from. As for the purpose I think it would be very valuable if we find out exactly   
how the transformation process is working. If we can break it, Piotr here would be a great ally. Not only because he is powerful but because the   
authorieties would still think of him as an authorised mutant-hunter."  
"Do you really think that's possible?"  
"Don't know. If we can render him harmless, which we can, it can't hurt to try right? If we have to we could kill him even if I don't look forward to  
that. He's an innocent victim in all of this."  
"Fine. We try. But it's on your responsibility!" Logan said and walked away. Marie looked at Forge apologetically and followed Logan.  
  
  
"Don't you think you were a bit harsh on them?"  
"Well, maybe. But I know how dangerous that big fella is if he gets loose. And I haven't forgotten that his ongoing mission at this  
time is to retire you."  
"He can't anymore."  
"I wish I had your confidence in that."  
"I could demonstrate it if you like" she said with a playful look in her eyes.  
"Nah, think I'll take a rain-check on that and hope Forge's right."  
"He hasn't let us down before, has he?"  
"No but we haven't known him for all that long either."  
"True, but I trust him. I don't know why but he gives of an aura of honour and reliability. And besides, you have to trust some people. The life we  
lead now may not be much but it would be even less if you only cared and trust number one wouldn't it?"  
"You got a point, darlin'"  
"Just one?"  
"Okay, lots of points then. Trust your instincts eh?"  
"That's it."  
"I can do that. I hope. If for nothing else that I would love that Forge is right about this. I'd give almost anything to have the old Piotr  
back. Even if it's just for the selfish reason that he was always a good friend before this. Even when I didn't deserve it."  
"I know what you mean. Let's just hope."  
"Yeah. That's the last thing that deserts you after all. And I will apologize to Forge later on."  
"What? The Wolverine is going soft?"  
"Don't tell anyone."  
"I won't. On one condition."  
"Which is?"  
"Kiss me."  
"Oh, I can do that. I'm just hoping Hank won't interrupt us this time."  
  
No, he didn't. This time they were left alone in their attempts to shut out the world for a while. 


	28. Chapter 28

Forge did keep his promise even if it took a bit longer than he  
had anticipated. Some of the components were a bit flaky at  
first but when he found out which ones it was a piece of cake  
to compensate for that. The repressing device was a bit clumsy  
bit it worked and it was a lot more elegant than the globes  
surrounding the mutant-prisons but it still gave the impression  
of not being much more than a glorified collar. The type you put on  
your dog.  
  
And in a way it was exactly that with the exception that it didn't  
need a string.  
  
And much to Forge's surprise, it worked even better than he would  
have first thought. Not only did it stop Piotr from being able to  
turn from his human form into the deadly steel-formed Colossus it  
also broke whatever had been made to him to turn him into a  
cold-hearted mutant-hunter.  
  
In retrospect, Forge admitted to himself that he shouldn't have been  
taken by surprise by that. Of course the government would try to  
kill two birds with one stone if at all possible. The only thing he  
regretted is that he still hadn't been able to figure out exactly  
what had been done. If he had he might have been able to supress only  
the mutant-hunter part of Piotr without taking away his gift at the  
same time.  
  
Piotr didn't seem to mind though. In fact, he was relieved. He hadn't  
said much about what it had been to be forced to kill his own kind  
but what he had said had left them all with no doubts that he had always  
known what he was doing was wrong but couldn't help himself in doing  
it. It had been as much of a reflex as the urge to breathe in and out.  
  
The only hint as to what had been done that Piotr knew about was that  
it had been a combination of some mind-altering drugs, torture and a  
small device inserted into his body. He didn't know where and it  
didn't really mattered because when Forge had asked Hank if they  
could remove it the answer had been a sad but firm no in answer even  
if they had known exactly where it was. They just didn't have the equipment  
to perform that kind of surgery without killing the patient in the  
process.  
  
As happy as Forge was that he had been able to help Piotr getting back  
to at least a semblance of his own self, it did put a small damper on  
his plans. The plans that had made Colossus to be an important part  
of turning the tables. That plan would now had to be scratched. Which  
of course didn't matter much. Sure, it would have been extremely good  
if it had worked out but Piotr Rasputin without his ability to turn  
into steel would be useless as an undercover agent.  
  
And to be honest Forge didn't even want him to anymore. Not because  
he didn't trust him but because he didn't have the heart to have him  
separated from his own kind again. Especially since even Allison had  
forgiven him for what he had done.  
  
The only thing Forge didn't trust him with was to be close to Kelly  
without some surveillance. And he couldn't blame him. Kelly had  
after all made the kind-hearted farm-boy of Piotr Rasputin into an  
assassin. Now he was sort of back to his kind-hearted self but whenever  
he saw Kelly his eyes grew cold again. Like he wanted to slowly main  
and torture Kelly even for crimes he wasn't at all guilty of.  
  
And despite what Logan had said before, he was really going out of  
his way to make Piotr to feel welcomed back. Forge wasn't at all  
sure but he suspected that there must have been a very fond friendship  
between the two of them before Kelly got his hand on Piotr. Logan wasn't  
usually the warmest of personalities except to Rogue but to this guy  
he was. He was always there for him when Piotr was feeling down because  
of what he had done and not in his usually gruff way either. They had  
been seen walking together during the night for hours at a time just  
talking and laughing like two old friends finally meeting again. And  
Logan wasn't even his old usual possessive jealous kind of guy when it  
comes to Rogue. Usually he would look like he'd gut any guy even daring  
to talk to her but not when it came to Piotr. He would just slap the  
guys shoulder playfully and just be both a trusting husband and a  
good friend at the same time.  
  
"Maybe that's the key", Forge thought, "to how to survive this ordeal.  
To pretend that everthing's normal." 


	29. Chapter 29

A few days later, too many for Forges liking, things hadn't  
changed much. Not at all to tell the truth except for  
people preparing themselves to strike at the very heart  
of prejudices and injustice. One of the hearts really.  
The plan, such as it were, was to first cripple and  
if possible kill Trask's buisness empire. If that involves  
Trask himself, so much the better. At least that was the  
general consenus. Forge, Logan and Marie weren't so  
sure that killing such a well-known buisness-man as  
Bolivar Trask was a very good idea. That could backfire  
very quickly and if it was something the mutant community  
did not need was even more anti-mutie hysteria.  
  
Sadly, those three were in the minority and even the   
gentle Hank McCoy was against them on that count. And  
when Forge thought about it, he felt he couldn't blame  
them. Trask's a very dangerous man and even more so if  
you have a very visible mutation like Hank or Blob.  
Forge himself could blend in amongst the humans if  
need be, even if only amongst people not equipped with  
mini-Cerebros. But that didn't mean he could not  
see Hank's point of view. He could so only too clearly  
and he didn't like it one bit. Being the kind man that  
he is he always wants to see the best in man, despite  
what the grim reality tells him. That's just the way  
he is. There had been many times in the past he had  
wanted to act upon the fight-fire-with-fire impulse  
but had so far been able to fight it. Only partly  
because he felt it would do more harm than good. The main  
reason is that his heart insisted in telling him that  
even creeps like Trask, Kelly and even Creed deserves  
a second chance. He didn't always believe his own  
heart but he couldn't in good conscience go against  
its will even if he would have wanted to. He was no stranger  
to killing though. He would kill if he had to but never  
lightly. Always in self-defence or in defending friends  
or family.  
  
He sighed in resignation, knowing that if someone  
else but him, Logan or Marie got hold of Trask  
first the creep would be dead.   
  
But he didn't let himself dwell on that too much.  
He had better things to do. Like making the last  
of the anti-supressors working and preparing the  
team for the strike.   
  
The strike was going to take place just two more  
nights into the future and the first team's already  
in place in places all around the intended target.  
  
The Sentinel Manufacturing plant. The ones left in  
the hideout were those that had been chosen to aim  
for the Trask HeadQuarters. Which target would be  
the most difficult to knock out was impossible to  
answer but they all had come to agree that this was  
the time.  
  
The time to stop being humanities collective punchingbag.  
  
  
  
Forge didn't sleep well the nights left until the strike.  
Hardly at all. His mind couldn't let go of the thought  
that he had overlooked something. Something that could  
prove to be disastrous but he couldn't put his finger  
on what it was and was praying to every God he could think  
of that he was just edgy and mistaken. Not quite convincing  
himself though.  
  
He became even more edgy during the day the strike was going  
to take place. The though "Something is bound to go wrong"  
kept going through his brain and he was doing his utmost  
to dismiss it as the equivalent of stage-freight.  
  
At 08:00 pm Logan and Marie went around, collecting everyone  
that was to go. An impressive number of mutants, all things  
considered. Some with powers that were very powerful, others  
that were almost insignificant but that had insisted they should  
be allowed to go anyway. And who could blame them for wanting  
to get even? And even if they got killed during the mission,  
they would be killed fast. Killed during a mission to get some  
sense of justice back to the world or being retired, what's  
the difference? You'd be dead either way but if you at least  
tries to make a difference, maybe ones death could be worthwhile  
in the end. That's what Forge tried to tell himself.  
  
  
  
Two hours later they were all assembled outside the entrance of  
Trask Headquarters and Forge thought to himself  
  
"Here goes nothing" 


	30. Chapter 30

:: :: denotes telepathy  
-------------------------------------------------  
The small band of mutant outlaws, small being relative, slowly but surely  
crept towards the only entrance to the Trask Headquarters. Everyone knew  
that anything could happen at any time making this an unparallelled disaster  
in their fight for freedom and justice but some if not all thought that  
maybe that was for the best. It made them more focused on the task at hand.  
Or that's at least what they thought. If they just collectively were fooling  
themselves or not remained to be seen.  
  
Well before they had reached the entrance, Marie stopped dead in her tracks  
when she "heard" the familiar voice of Emma Frost in her head.  
  
::Rogue? What do you think you're doing?::  
::Getting even, Emma. And where have you been lately anyway?::  
::Away on that mission as you well know. Have you completely lost your minds?::  
::No, but a lot has changed since you left. Now, if you don't mind why don't you   
let us take care of business here?::  
::Seems I have no choice. Anything I can do to help?::  
::If you can tell us who are in that building and how many, yes.::  
::I'm afraid not. The building is too well shielded against telepaths and I'm  
too far away to be able to bypass it. Only thing I can pick up is that Trask  
and Shaw are inside but they usually are anyway so that's not much help is it?::  
::Not really. But if you really want to help, go to the other team that's  
going to tear down the Sentinel factory. Our team is the stronger one so they will  
need all the help they can get.::  
::Will do. Don't bother to tell me the adress.::  
::Knew I wouldn't have to. Good luck Emma.::  
::You too. Give my regards to the other in good time."::  
  
And the connection was closed. Marie quickly decided that now was not the  
time to reveal that Emma was heading for the other team. There was no time and  
it could become a distraction. She however decided that the two people  
nearest to her deserved to know why she had stopped so she quickly gave Logan and  
Cypher an update as they moved along.  
  
They didn't listen much to her though as they were too busy in getting close  
to the entrance without getting noticed. No surprise there. When they were as close  
as they could get without being spotted everyone froze. Everyone except Cypher and  
Logan that is. They were the ones designated to get the doors opened and the guards out  
of the way.  
  
First, Logan got himself over there without getting spotted and killed the  
guards as quick and painlessly as he could. After that Cypher went after and went to  
work at cracking the code that would open the doors. He first used the one that was  
Colossus personal code but as he suspected it required a change of password. He only  
thanked his lucky star that the transformation process had made Piotr unable to  
change from his armoured form to the human one at will and had been locked into the  
armoured one. Otherwise it would have been a more sophisticated way of granting access.  
But since the armoured Piotr didn't have any fingerprints and that the method of  
granting entry because of voice print or a retinal scan was too unreliable a rather complex  
code typed in at a computer console was the way that had been chosen.  
  
Cyphers mutation didn't only grant him the ability to understand every language spoken, it also   
gave him a very good knack at getting into where he was not wanted. The Trask complex was not exempt   
from that so it didn't take many minutes until the doors obediently opened without sounding an alarm.  
  
Once inside, Forge, Marie and Logan as the went to find Trask and Shaw. According to Piotr, their offices   
were on the top floor and they immediately went for the nearest elevator. Once in it, Marie tried to make   
contact with Emma again to see how things were going at the other place but were only met with silence.  
That could only mean one thing...things hadn't went to plan at the factory and something dreadful must have   
happened. She refused to think of that at the time though and instead tried to focus on the mission ahead.  
  
Once up and once they were certain that they had indeed located Trask and Shaw, Forge pressed a button on a small   
gadget he had in his pocket. Which sent the go-ahead signal. Now it was as riskfree as it could be for the rest of  
the mutants to do their thing: taking out the guards indoors and destroying as much equipment as possible. No one really   
believed this was the only place of operations Trask had but it was a significant part of his operations. With this place  
crippled he would have a much harder time in accomplishing anything.  
  
The trio then quickly entered the offices of Trask, catching him much by surprise.  
  
"What's this? Ah, the freaks think they can accomplish something here, don't they? How precious."  
"You know, you're rather cocky for someone that's seriously outnumbered by people more powerful than you" Logan said.  
"As if I needed anything than myself and my trusty companion here", Trask said and pulled out a gun pointing it towards Logan.  
"Before you pull that trigger, you better remember that annoyed is my natural state and that a bullet won't seriously slow me down."  
"Here it will" Trask answered with contempt in his voice and pulled the trigger placing a bullet square in Logans chest. The wound   
healed as fast as it had been put there which made Trasks eyes widen in horror. Logan looked like he was ready to gut him and do it   
slowly to boot but Marie held him back.  
  
"Shaw? Explain this! Why are their mutations operational?"  
"Because it's payback time", Shaw answered calmly before yanking the gun from Trasks hand.  
"You're one of them!"  
"Yes."  
  
Trask sank to his knees as if in defeat, looking up at Shaw with contempt in his eyes before saying  
  
"And what do you think you will accomplish by this? Breaking and entry? At the property of an honourable businessman?"  
"Honourable? Hardly the word I would chose. I'd say something like the utter dregg of society. Much like your pal Kelly really." Shaw   
said before turning to Marie, "Kelly's still at the shelter isn't he?"  
  
Marie only nodded and Shaw once again turned towards Trask.  
  
"So you see Bolivar. The Sentinel Factory is destroyed or soon is and the most prominent member of the anti-mutant hysteria is at our mercy.   
That only leaves you unaccounted for. Kelly's lackeys, like McTaggert, don't mean anything."  
  
Trask looked up again but the defeated look in his eyes, if it had ever been there, had vanished and been replaced with cold hatred, so much cold   
it would have put Robert Drake to shame, and he said "Et tu Brute".  
  
Which made the speaker system in the office come to life and a cold but distincively feminine voice said "Self destruction system initiated.   
Two minutes and counting".  
  
Shaw looked at Trask with horror. "What did you just do!"  
  
"You didn't think I trusted anyone in here fully, did you? Not even you. I'd rather die than let you freaks take control of this place!"  
  
Everyone there knew the peril they were in but Logan was the only one with enough calm to use the intercom system in which he yelled:  
  
"Everybody out! This place is gonna blow!" 


	31. Chapter 31

Panic reigned. Or it would have if there had been time for panic! Even with  
Marie's newly found powers it was a close call. A very close call!  
  
Her powers wouldn't save protect anyone but herself so she only really had  
one option: to get as many people as possible out of the building as  
possible. Which would mean the shortest way.  
  
Out the window and then straight down.  
  
It was a race against the clock, especially since she was only really able  
to bring one of her partners with her at a time. If she could have brought at  
least two, it wouldn't have been much of a problem. But Marie was a die-hard  
realist. She knew that one friend or partner at a time was all she could manage. If  
she tried more than one, at least one was doomed to death.  
  
So she had to make some sort of priority, even if it was subjective at best.  
Logan first, ignoring his protests that she should help the others first.  
She knew, somewhere back in her mind, objectively that he's right. He's the  
one most likely to survive a collapsing skyscraper. But Marie's not ready  
to accept the possibility of the death of Logan despite all that she's seen  
throughout the years. Not if she could do anything to postpone that death  
at any rate and right now she felt she could.  
  
Anyway, Logan's now safe on the ground as far away from the building as she  
could rationalize.  
  
Up again. For Forge this time. A guy she had become more and more close to.  
Not in the romantic or even sexual way even if Logan had not been a factor  
but as a guy she would not hesitate in trusting her life with. There was  
something in that guy that just made it impossible to not trust him.  
  
Either way she became more and more desperate since she didn't know that  
once Forge was down wheter she would be able to get back up in time for Shaw or  
not.  
  
Which made her feel ashamed. A lot. If it hadn't been for her, Shaw wouldn't  
be in this danger in the first place. And he's the one she had decided to  
rescue last - why's that? She knew Shaw was tough and not much could kill him but  
he wasn't immortal either or had a healing factor like Logan or the late Victor Creed.  
Marie didn't know why it had become like that. She did trust Sebastian Shaw  
like her own right hand. So why had he dropped down on her list of people worthy  
of saving? She didn't really know and hadn't got the time to really  
investigate the matter properly either.  
  
She only knew that she had to get up back into Trasks office as fast as her  
powers would allow her to. She couldn't allow Shaw to get killed if there  
was anything she could do to prevent it.  
  
Halfway up, she met Shaw on his way down. Freefalling but still his cocky  
and self-assured self, which meant he couldn't help but saying  
  
"Hi there, Rogue. Care for a passenger?"  
  
Marie, or the Rogue, was way too surprised to say anything but  
  
"Why did you jump?"  
"I figured that I would be dead either way and in this fashion there was at  
least a chance of you catching me".  
  
Marie thought briefly over what to answer to that before reality caught up  
with her. An explosion could be heard and then the mighty building that had once been  
the HeadQuarters for the Trask company began to crumble and fall down. Much like  
the houses of cards Gambit had been so fond of, before someone had shook the  
table or had blown a gust of wind at the cardhouse.  
  
"I rest my case" Shaw said before continueing with "I wonder how many of our  
collegues that made it out of that building?"  
  
  
  
Not too many it turned out. Practically none at all to tell the truth. Of  
everyone in or around the building only five made it out again. The rest died with the   
collapse of the building.  
  
Marie, Logan, Forge, Shaw and Cypher made it. The rest died or made themselves scarce if   
they felt they had the need to make themselves unknown for some reason. Which many  
felt they had to. Many of Trasks former employees had been mutants that had felt that being  
employed by Trask had been their best shot at survival. They hadn't been right and none of the  
surviving members of the outlaws would have held it against them. They only knew too well what  
it was like to be perceived to be an outcast of society or even as the danger to society.  
Those former employees of Trask had chosen to better run though since they didn't know  
whatever Trask was the most dangerous one or those new people wasting his office. And who could  
blame them? It was all they knew.  
  
The few ones of the resistance team left couldn't anyway. And they didn't  
even want to. At this point in time, all they wanted to know is what had happened at the  
Sentinel manufacturing plant. Something terrible for sure but what?  
  
Which is something they never found out. They got over there as soon as they  
possibly could but didn't really find anything except....  
  
A lot of dead mutants, a devastated factory and some trashed Sentinels. That  
was all. And the body of Emma Frost was never discovered even though the silence of  
her mind said more than her body would ever had been able to.  
  
Given enough time the resistance movement might consider it a victory after  
all even if it was hard at the time. Many people had died after all but the most  
important things for the anti-mutie movement were either dead or shattered.  
  
Bolivar Trask's dead. His headquarters's is demolished. Robert Kelly is  
being held prisoner. The Sentinel Factory has been demolished.  
  
A lot to be thankful for given time.  
  
  
  
  
A time not given to anyone. When the few surviviors had made it back to the  
shelter they found it mostly deserted. A almost dead Hank McCoy was still around and  
a more than alive Robert Kelly, now freed from his chains.  
  
"I wondered when you'd get back" the formner Senator said before looking  
with contempt at Hank. "So did this animal of yours."  
  
"What's happened here?" Shaw wandered, while contemplating if his undercover  
buisness had been worth it.  
  
"Easy. That 'Et tu Brute' Trask uttered didn't only made the self-destruction of  
the building to take place. It also made some mutant-hunters aware of where  
the unique DNA-combination of mine was located. I'm not a mutant but they're finly  
tuned enough to be able to come to my resuce anyway. I don't think your blue friend   
there would like that though. Or that steel-enforced friend either. Anyway, I'm here  
alive and sound. They're not"  
  
"That's what you think, bub" Logan said before cutting off Kelly's right arm.  
Just before Marie could stop him.  
  
"Logan, don't do anything more. He's not worth you turning into a killer.  
Let's just throw him out onto the streets now and let him fend for himself, the way we've  
been forced to for so long."  
"I like the way you think" Logan answered while giving Marie a slow and intense kiss.  
  
Hank and Forge a short while later where getting rid of the resistant Robert  
Kelly. In the middle of the nowhere to boot.  
  
"You can't do this to me!" Robert Kelly was shouting at the top of his lungs. "How am I  
supposed to survive?"  
  
"You've gotten a lot of more chance of surivival than the mutants you've sentenced to  
death" Hank answered calmly. "Deal with it, the way we've had to the last ten years."  
  
And that was the last thing anyone ever heard of the name Robert Kelly.  
  
But in a way he had made his name a legacy. Because everyone of the mutants  
still alive knew that they had to disappear for a while. A rather long  
while.  
  
The disapperance of Robert Kelly, Bolivar Trask and his headquarter blown up, the  
former X-men mansion raided and some more things are not to be taken lightly.  
  
So, in the end Robert Kelly gets what he wants.  
  
The resistance movement gets broken apart even though no one wants it.  
  
Hank McCoy (when his strength had been recovered), Cypher and Forge silently  
disappears a few weeks later and not even Logan and Marie knows to where but they're not surprised.   
Only in the way that it really should have happened earlier.  
  
Shaw cracked almost immediately after the operation. Not because that he hadn't been able to be of much help.   
No, but because he had been unable to help his true love Emma Frost. He had still not been able to gather the   
courage to tell her that he loved her more than life itself.  
  
And now Emma was missing in action. Which was way more than Sebastian Shaw really could handle. He was more or   
less only staring into the nearest wall, wishing for the time to go into reverse.  
  
  
  
Which omly leaves Marie and Logan unaccounted for. They got out of it all mostly unscathed and are at quite a loss   
over what to do now. They know they can't remain where they are for any length of time. If they hadn't been wanted by   
the authorities already for being mutants, they would soon be when the news over what happened at Trasks's leaks out.  
  
So they hit the road. At first with Marie's flying as their "vehicle" until they found more anonymous means of transportation.   
They don't know where they're going really, except up north at first to Logan's native Canada.  
  
From there, who knows what lies ahead?  
  
  
  
Many years later, the Australian wilderness  
  
"Hey, Marie?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Happy birthday!"  
  
"Logan, this ain't my birthday!"  
"I know. But it is the anniversary of our escape from those creeps that always wanted to kill us!"  
"Has it really been twenty years since we fled?"  
"I'm afraid so."  
  
"Let's celebrate then!"  
"That's my girl!" 


	32. Chapter 32: Epilogue

Ten years after Kelly's disappearance  
  
The war was finally over. The resistance movement had, in the  
ironic way that always seems to be there after a war, both  
failed and suceeded at the same time.  
  
Failed, because a lot of mutants had been maimed and 'retired'  
since the Mutant Registration Act had been enacted.  
  
Failed, because in the end it was human cowardice that in a  
way had made the tide turn. Trask's suicide, or rather the  
way he did it, made people slowly but surely see that one  
fanatic can be a more threat to the well-being and lives of  
people than the perceived threat he's trying to fight.  
  
Succeeded, because they were too stupid, adamant or  
pig-headed to just give up and die thus making it possible for  
the right time to come along. The time when there's a real possibility  
to abolish the law of hatred and fear. If not for that, Kelly, Trask and  
their goons would have won a long time ago.  
  
Succeeded, because without them Trask would never have been driven  
to the drastic measures of suicide and mass destruction.  
  
  
  
When the news reached Logan and Marie in their own hideout in  
the wilderness of Australia, they reacted with both overjoy that  
it was finally over, shame because they had made themselves Missing  
In Action for the last ten years leaving the conclusion to the  
abomniation the United States had been known as for some time to fate  
and the few survivors there was. And shock, because how they received  
the news of the good tidings. From an american newspaper. That in  
and of itself wasn't shocking but the photo on the frontpage certainly  
was!  
  
Under a banner labeled with the single word 'Peace' and decorated  
with white doves symbolising the same say thing the newly appointed  
mayor of New York stood, looking proud of what had been accomplished,  
none other than Hank McCoy himself! And someone that looked suspiciously  
like Forge in the background.  
  
Logan couldn't help but laugh a little at that. "Look like Hank's  
little speech to Kelly become true after all."  
"Yeah, so what do you think? Now that it's over, should we go back?"  
  
Logan mulled that over for a few minutes before answering,  
"No, I don't think so. Maybe selfish of me but that place now holds  
too many unpleasant that I rather not think about."  
"But they might need our help."  
"Maybe but they have needed that more for the past ten years than now.  
They have a lot of rebuilding to do but they don't need our help for  
that."  
"I guess you're right. They have their lives to live now, and we have  
ours. But..."  
  
That was as far as Marie was able to say before they were interrupted.  
The spitting image of Marie but a lot younger.  
  
"Mom? Dad? I fell out of the swing!" Before the 6-year old was able to  
say anything else Logan swept her up in his arms saying  
  
"Let's make it all better than, sweetie."  
  
Marie just smiled and thought to herself "To hell with the buts and ifs  
and the past. This is where we belong now.".  
  
Life was finally giving a break to her and Logan and whatever might happen  
in the future, she was going to enjoy life to the fullest in the meanwhile. 


End file.
